Bowel cancer is the 3rd most common cancer in the UK, behind breast cancer and prostate cancer. Around 50,000 people are diagnosed with it every year.
At Enable Law many people who contact us have concerns about the care they received before their cancer was diagnosed. For their claim to be successful they must prove that the delay in diagnosing their cancer caused their condition to be worse than it would have been with an earlier diagnosis.
Like all cancers, the earlier bowel cancer is diagnosed, then the better the outcome will normally be. However, we see delays in diagnosis ranging from a few weeks to a few years.
It is usually the case that the longer the delay, then the more likely it is that it caused the patient’s condition to get worse. In this article, with the help of a real-life example, we will show how everyone’s situation is different – and even a delay of a few months can make a big difference. So, it is always important to seek legal advice from clinical negligence experts if you think your cancer diagnosis was delayed.
What law says about delayed diagnosis of bowel cancer
To have a successful claim for a delayed diagnosis of cancer, a Claimant needs to prove that:
- It was negligent to have not diagnosed the cancer sooner, and crucially that
- If the cancer had been diagnosed sooner, then the patient’s outcome / prognosis would have been better (or, if they have passed away, their death would have been avoided).
Therefore, once we have established when a diagnosis should have been made, we need to assess what impact (if any) earlier diagnosis and treatment would have made.
This is often the most complicated, and contentious, part of the claim because usually the development of the cancer in the first place is unavoidable (and is not related to any potential negligence). So our task, with the help of independent medical experts, is to prove exactly how much worse someone’s condition / prognosis is because of the negligent delay.
In some cases, where the delay was a number of years, it can be relatively easy to prove that their condition is now much worse. However, where the delay is only of a few months, it can be much harder to prove that it made a difference – and the medical experts will need to look carefully at how the cancer likely developed.
How curable is bowel cancer?
Bowel cancer often develops slowly (in the region of 10 – 20 years), and it therefore can be present for years before symptoms appear.
Most cases are thought to start with a type of non-cancerous (‘benign’) tumour. These are slow growing and can, over time, undergo changes to become a cancerous (‘malignant’) tumour. If left untreated this will spread to nearby lymph nodes and may spread (‘metastasise’) to other parts of the body, most commonly the liver or lungs.
Surgical removal of the benign tumour however leads to the patient being cured. And treatment of “early” malignant tumours, before they have spread, also leads to the patient being cured in almost all cases.
Therefore, prompt diagnosis and treatment are key.
Someone’s treatment and prognosis is then usually dictated by the staging classification of their cancer when they’re first diagnosed. The tumour, node and metastasis (‘TNM’) staging system is now the most commonly used classification in the UK. Where, the higher the stage, then the worse the prognosis is likely to be.
Therefore, when determining whether a delayed diagnosis made any difference, medical experts often look to compare the TNM score when the person was diagnosed to the score they would have likely had if diagnosed sooner. By comparing the two, it is then possible to identify if there is a potential claim.
Delayed diagnosis of Mrs X’s bowel cancer – case study
Mrs X went to her GP in July 2020 with cramps and abdominal bloating. She later underwent a CT scan, in November 2020, which was reported as normal. She was eventually diagnosed with bowel cancer in May 2021 – and underwent surgery to remove part of her bowel in July 2021. When she was diagnosed, she had a TNM score of ‘T4 N2 M0’ (which meant that the cancer had spread to nearby lymph nodes).
During the claim it was established that she should have been diagnosed in November 2020 – and the CT scan at that time was negligently reported (as it should have spotted her bowel cancer). The medical experts agreed that, had she been diagnosed in November 2020 and underwent treatment sooner, then the cancer would not have spread to her lymph nodes. So she would have had a TNM score of ‘T4 N0 M0’ (i.e. the cancer was just confined to her bowel).
Earlier diagnosis and treatment therefore would have avoided the cancer spreading, and she would have been cured with surgery and chemotherapy. But, because of the delay, she would now probably only survive a further three to five years. Therefore, the delay in diagnosis (of around 6 months) meant that her condition and prognosis was now worse – and so her claim was successful.
Securing this outcome for Mrs X meant that she would be able to pay for the care she needed during the last years of her life, and she could move into alternative accommodation that would meet her needs and enable her to live as full a life as possible. It also meant that there would be some financial support for her husband after she passed away.
How we can help you
If you think that you might have a claim for a delayed diagnosis of bowel cancer then contact Morgan Lister or a member of our cancer team on 0800 044 8488 or fill in our contact form so we can give you a call at a time convenient for you. We can help you understand what may have happened and help you bring a claim if you decide to do so.
