Colon cancer is one of the most frequently misdiagnosed cancers, and the reasons why come down to two main issues: overlapping symptoms with far more common conditions, and errors in how colonoscopies are performed and evaluated. Understanding both can help patients recognize when a misdiagnosis may have happened and when it’s worth speaking with an attorney.
Symptoms That Look Like Something Else
Colon cancer symptoms are notoriously nonspecific. Things like stomach ache, constipation, diarrhea, bleeding, gas, bloating, cramping, and fatigue are all associated with colon cancer; but they’re also associated with a long list of far more common, far less serious conditions. That overlap makes it easy for a doctor to reach for the more common explanation first, even when cancer is the actual cause.
Colon cancer is frequently misdiagnosed as:
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Hemorrhoids
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
- Gastroenteritis (the stomach bug or stomach flu)
- Diverticulitis, which also presents with abdominal pain, fever, and sometimes anemia
- Peptic ulcer disease, involving an ulcer in the stomach
Because these conditions share so many of the same symptoms as colon cancer, it’s easy to see how a diagnosis can be delayed or missed entirely, especially if a doctor doesn’t order further testing to rule cancer out.
Errors During the Colonoscopy Itself
Symptom overlap isn’t the only problem. Colonoscopies, the primary tool for detecting colon cancer, can also be performed or evaluated incorrectly, leading to a missed diagnosis even when the right test was ordered.
Incomplete colonoscopies. A proper colonoscopy requires the doctor to examine the entire length of the colon with the instrument. If the doctor doesn’t advance the scope through the full colon, portions of it go unexamined, and any cancer or precancerous growths in those areas can be missed entirely.
Lab errors on polyp biopsies. When a colonoscopy reveals a suspicious area of the colon, often a polyp, that tissue is typically removed and sent to a lab for testing. If the lab doesn’t read or process that sample correctly, a cancerous polyp can come back as benign, giving the patient and doctor a false sense of security.
Why This Matters
A missed or delayed colon cancer diagnosis can allow the disease to progress from an early, highly treatable stage to a more advanced one significantly affecting a patient’s treatment options and prognosis. When that delay results from a doctor misattributing symptoms to a more common condition, an incomplete colonoscopy, or a lab error in reading a biopsy, it may amount to medical malpractice.
If you or a loved one were diagnosed with a common gastrointestinal condition and later found to have colon cancer, it’s worth having your medical records reviewed by an attorney experienced in these cases.
To learn more about Marciano Legal and our cancer misdiagnosis attorneys, please feel free to contact us online. You can also dial (215) 515-7743 if you need legal help for a claim of your own in Pennsylvania.
