Treatment Options for Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that arises in the prostate, a gland in men’s bodies, just below the bladder and in front of the rectum. It produces the fluid that’s part of semen. Behind the prostate are seminal vesicles. If the treatment options for prostate cancer resulted in serious side effects, you should discuss your situation with the seasoned Syracuse medical malpractice attorneys of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano.

Prostate cancers arise in the prostate gland cells, but they can metastasize to other parts of the body. Most are adenocarcinomas, but others are rarer types such as small cell carcinomas, transitional carcinomas, neuroendocrine tumors, and sarcomas. In many cases, unlike some other types of cancer, prostate cancers grow slowly. Your physician may recommend local treatments, surgery, radiation therapy, brachytherapy, proton therapy, cryosurgery or intensity-modulated radiation therapy.

Some treatments for prostate cancer can cause severe side effects that can damage a patient’s quality of life, resulting in erectile dysfunction and incontinence. In cases where the potential harm may outweigh the benefits, a doctor may recommend active surveillance instead of a medical intervention. Accordingly, when physicians detect prostate cancer at an early stage, they may recommend waiting and watching to see whether the cancer progresses since treatment may cause more medical complications than the cancer will. However, in some circumstances, the surgeon may also recommend that the prostate cancer be surgically removed so that it can be fully eradicated.

If you can establish liability for prostate cancer malpractice, you may be able to recover damages. You will need to show that your doctor or other health care provider failed to meet the professional standard of care applicable to treating you, and that this failure caused your injuries and actual damages. In most cases, your lawyer will need to retain an expert who can provide an expert opinion on the professional standard of care for treatment of prostate cancer, whether your physician breached the professional standard of care, and how the breach caused your damages. This expert must be able to both understand the issues of your case and also how to explain technical issues to the jury.

The professional standard of care with regard to treatment options will depend on the nature and extent of your prostate cancer. Physicians may breach the standard of care in different ways, including by providing an unnecessary harmful treatment. For example, if you required an aggressive, painful and expensive procedure to treat your prostate cancer because the medical lab had misinterpreted your test results early on when the cancer could have been more easily treated, you may have a claim for medical malpractice. Alternatively, if a surgeon performed a radical prostatectomy on your spouse, who had a mild, slow-progressing prostate cancer, you may have a claim for wrongful death damages if your spouse passed away due to surgical complications.

If you can establish liability for your health care provider’s prostate cancer malpractice, you may be able to recover damages. These losses may be both economic and noneconomic. The nature and amount of them will depend on the particular losses. For instance, if there was an error made in diagnosis and your doctor recommended you undergo an unnecessary bilateral orchiectomy, or surgical removal of both testicles that caused you harm, you may be able to recover medical bills, lost wages incurred while recovering, loss of enjoyment, loss of consortium, and pain and suffering. When a loved one is killed due to a treatment error in prostate cancer it may be appropriate to sue for wrongful death damages. In New York, wrongful death damages are limited to pecuniary losses.

If you were not properly advised on treatment options for prostate cancer, you should discuss whether you have grounds for a malpractice claim with our experienced lawyers. We represent prostate cancer patients and their families around upstate New York in Syracuse, Rochester, Watertown, Lowville, Oswego, Auburn, Canandaigua, Wampsville, Ithaca, Lyons, Oneida, Cooperstown, Utica, Elmira, Herkimer, and Binghamton. Complete DeFrancisco & Falgiatano’s online form or call us at 833-200-2000.