Healthcare Provider Sexual Assault Lawyer Chicago

Delayed Cancer Diagnosis Lawyer Chicago

I need to tell you something that is difficult to hear but important to understand: when a doctor fails to diagnose cancer in time, they may have stolen months or years from your life. Not through malice. Through carelessness. Through failing to order a test that should have been ordered. Through ignoring symptoms that any competent physician would have investigated. Through reading a scan, seeing something abnormal, and doing nothing about it.

If you are reading this, there is a good chance that you or someone you love was recently told they have cancer, and that the cancer should have been caught sooner. Maybe a lot sooner. Maybe you went to your doctor with symptoms and were told it was nothing. Maybe you had a routine screening and the results were misread. Maybe a specialist saw something concerning on imaging and never followed up. Whatever happened, you are now dealing with a more advanced cancer, more aggressive treatment, and a worse prognosis than you would have faced if your doctor had done their job.

My name is Scott DeSalvo, and I’ve been representing injured people in Chicago and throughout Illinois for over 27 years. I handle cases where doctors, hospitals, and medical professionals fail their patients, and delayed cancer diagnosis cases are among the most important cases I take. Let me walk you through how these cases work under Illinois law, what you need to prove, and what I look for when people call me.

Why Delayed Cancer Diagnosis Is One of the Most Devastating Forms of Medical Malpractice

Cancer is a disease where time is everything. Every oncologist will tell you the same thing: early detection saves lives. When cancer is caught at Stage 1, before it has spread beyond the original tumor, the survival rates for most cancers are dramatically higher than when it is caught at Stage 3 or Stage 4.

The numbers tell the story. For breast cancer, the five-year survival rate when diagnosed at Stage 1 is 99 percent. When it reaches Stage 4, that number drops to around 31 percent. For lung cancer, the five-year survival rate for localized disease is 67 percent. For Stage 4 lung cancer, it drops to around 12 percent. For colorectal cancer, localized detection means a five-year survival rate of roughly 91 percent. Once it has spread to distant organs, that drops to about 14 percent.

Those are not just statistics. Those are people. Those are the months and years of life that a delayed diagnosis can take from someone. When your doctor had the opportunity to catch your cancer early and failed to do so, and that failure allowed the cancer to progress to a later stage, the consequences are measured not just in medical bills but in life expectancy, in treatment options that are no longer available, and in suffering that did not have to happen.

That is why these cases matter. And that is why they deserve a lawyer who understands both the medicine and the law.

What Illinois Law Requires You to Prove in a Delayed Cancer Diagnosis Case

A delayed cancer diagnosis case is a medical malpractice case. Under Illinois law, you must prove four elements to hold a doctor or hospital accountable for failing to diagnose your cancer in time.

First, you must establish that a doctor-patient relationship existed, meaning the physician owed you a duty of care. This is usually straightforward. If you were being treated by the doctor, the relationship exists.

Second, you must prove that the doctor breached the standard of care. This means showing that a reasonably competent physician in the same specialty, under the same or similar circumstances, would have diagnosed the cancer sooner. This is where expert testimony becomes essential. Illinois law requires you to have a qualified medical expert review your case and provide a written opinion, called a Certificate of Merit under 735 ILCS 5/2-622, before you can even file a lawsuit. The expert must confirm that there is a reasonable basis to believe malpractice occurred.

Third, you must prove causation. This is the most complex part of a delayed cancer diagnosis case. You have to show that the delay in diagnosis actually caused you harm. Specifically, you need to demonstrate that if the cancer had been diagnosed when it should have been, your treatment options would have been different, your prognosis would have been better, or your outcome would have been more favorable. The defense will almost always argue that the delay did not matter, that the cancer would have progressed the same way regardless. Breaking through that argument requires strong medical evidence and credible expert testimony.

Fourth, you must prove damages. You need to show the specific ways the delay harmed you: the additional treatment you had to undergo, the lost chance of a better outcome, the physical suffering, the emotional toll, and the financial impact.

The Lost Chance Doctrine in Illinois

This is one of the most important legal concepts in delayed cancer diagnosis cases, and it is something your lawyer absolutely must understand.

In many delayed diagnosis cases, the cancer was going to be serious regardless of when it was caught. The question is not whether earlier diagnosis would have guaranteed a cure, but whether it would have given you a better chance. Illinois courts recognize what is called the “lost chance” or “loss of chance” doctrine. Under this theory, if a doctor’s negligent failure to diagnose cancer reduced your chance of a better outcome, you can recover damages proportional to the lost chance, even if you cannot prove that earlier diagnosis would have definitely saved your life.

Here is how it works in practice. Let’s say a patient had a 70 percent chance of five-year survival if their cancer had been diagnosed at Stage 2. Because of a doctor’s negligent delay, the cancer was not diagnosed until Stage 4, when the survival rate dropped to 20 percent. The delay cost the patient a 50 percent chance of survival. Under the lost chance doctrine, that 50 percent reduction in survival probability is itself a compensable injury.

This doctrine is critical because it means you do not have to prove that you definitely would have survived if the cancer had been caught on time. You only have to prove that the delay reduced your chances. That is a significant distinction, and it opens the door for many families who might otherwise have no legal recourse.

How Doctors Miss Cancer: The Most Common Failures I See

After 27 years of practice, I have reviewed hundreds of medical records in cases where cancer was diagnosed too late. The failures tend to fall into recognizable patterns:

Failure to Order Appropriate Screening Tests

Certain patients are at higher risk for certain cancers based on their age, family history, genetics, and personal medical history. A woman with a family history of breast cancer should be getting mammograms earlier and more frequently. A patient over 45 should be screened for colorectal cancer. A long-time smoker should be evaluated for lung cancer. When a doctor fails to recommend or order screening tests that are standard for a patient’s risk profile, and cancer goes undetected as a result, that is a failure in the standard of care.

Misreading or Ignoring Imaging Results

This is one of the most common and most infuriating failures. A radiologist reads a mammogram, CT scan, or MRI and either misses an abnormality that is clearly visible, or sees something suspicious and fails to recommend follow-up testing. In one well-known Illinois case, a radiologist recommended follow-up X-rays after spotting an abnormality in a patient’s lung. The patient’s doctor never informed the patient or arranged the follow-up. By the time the cancer was finally diagnosed a year and a half later, it had tripled in size. The family won a $14 million jury verdict.

Dismissing Patient Symptoms

Patients come to their doctors with symptoms: persistent cough, unexplained weight loss, blood in their stool, a lump they can feel, chronic fatigue, changes in bowel habits. Too often, doctors attribute these symptoms to something benign without running the tests that would rule out cancer. They tell the patient it is stress, irritable bowel syndrome, a pulled muscle, or a viral infection. When a patient repeatedly presents with symptoms that are consistent with cancer and the doctor fails to investigate, that is negligence.

Failure to Follow Up on Abnormal Test Results

This happens more than people realize. A lab test comes back with an abnormal result. A biopsy shows atypical cells. A scan reveals a suspicious mass. And then nothing happens. The results sit in a file. Nobody calls the patient. Nobody orders the next test. The cancer grows unchecked while the patient assumes no news is good news. In Illinois, a doctor has a duty to communicate abnormal test results to the patient and to take appropriate action. Failure to do so is a clear breach of the standard of care.

Misinterpreting Biopsy Results

Pathology errors can be devastating. A biopsy sample is taken and sent to a lab, and the pathologist either misreads the tissue, fails to identify cancerous cells, or incorrectly classifies the cancer’s type or stage. A false negative biopsy result can give a patient months of false reassurance while the cancer continues to grow and spread. These errors are particularly common with certain types of cancer, including melanoma, prostate cancer, and breast cancer.

Failure to Refer to a Specialist

When a primary care doctor encounters symptoms or test results that suggest cancer, the standard of care often requires a referral to a specialist, such as an oncologist, a gastroenterologist, or a pulmonologist. Failing to make that referral, or delaying it unnecessarily, can allow cancer to progress from a treatable stage to one that is far more difficult or impossible to treat.

Types of Cancer Most Commonly Involved in Delayed Diagnosis Lawsuits

Delayed diagnosis lawsuits can involve virtually any type of cancer. But certain cancers appear far more frequently in malpractice claims because they have well-established screening protocols, their symptoms are recognizable, and the difference between early and late detection is dramatic:

Breast cancer is the most commonly misdiagnosed cancer in malpractice claims. Missed mammogram readings, failure to follow up on suspicious findings, and failure to biopsy palpable lumps are the most common errors. Illinois has seen record settlements in breast cancer misdiagnosis cases, including a $12.35 million settlement that was the largest in the state for an untimely diagnosis of breast cancer.

Lung cancer is frequently missed because early symptoms like cough and fatigue are attributed to less serious conditions. Failure to follow up on abnormal chest X-rays and CT scans is a recurring theme. Illinois juries have awarded $14 million in verdicts for delayed lung cancer diagnosis when doctors failed to communicate abnormal imaging results.

Colorectal cancer is highly treatable when caught early through colonoscopy. Failure to recommend screening for at-risk patients, failure to follow up on positive fecal occult blood tests, and misinterpretation of colonoscopy findings lead to delayed diagnoses that allow the cancer to spread.

Cervical cancer is detectable through routine Pap smears, and delays often result from laboratories misreading Pap smear results. Illinois has seen settlements of $2.3 million for failure to properly read Pap smears that led to a delayed cervical cancer diagnosis and death.

Prostate cancer, skin cancer including melanoma, ovarian cancer, and pancreatic cancer also appear regularly in delayed diagnosis claims, though the specific facts and viability of each case depend heavily on the type of cancer, the screening standards, and the delay involved.

The Statute of Limitations for Delayed Cancer Diagnosis Cases in Illinois

This is absolutely critical, so please pay close attention.

Under Illinois law, specifically 735 ILCS 5/13-212, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice cases is two years from the date you knew or reasonably should have known of the injury. There is also a four-year statute of repose, meaning that no matter when you discover the malpractice, you cannot file a lawsuit more than four years after the negligent act or omission occurred.

In a delayed cancer diagnosis case, the discovery rule is particularly important. The two-year clock does not start ticking from the date of the original negligent act, such as the misread mammogram. It starts ticking from the date you knew or should have known that the earlier failure caused you harm. In most cases, that means the clock starts when you receive the correct cancer diagnosis and learn or should have learned that the cancer could have been caught sooner.

For minors, the rules are different. A child injured by medical malpractice has up to eight years from the date of the negligent act, or until their 22nd birthday, whichever comes first.

Here is the trap I warn every client about: if the doctor who missed your cancer was a federal employee, which sometimes happens at federally funded clinics and VA hospitals, the Federal Tort Claims Act may apply. Under the FTCA, you may have as little as two years from the date of injury to file an administrative claim, and the statute of repose provisions are different. This must be investigated immediately.

My advice is the same advice I give in every case: do not wait. The sooner you contact a lawyer, the sooner we can preserve evidence, obtain medical records, and retain the experts needed to evaluate your claim. Waiting only helps the defense.

What Damages Can You Recover in a Delayed Cancer Diagnosis Case

Illinois does not cap damages in medical malpractice cases. The Illinois Supreme Court declared damage caps unconstitutional in Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in 2010. That means if your case warrants significant compensation, there is no artificial limit on what you can recover.

Economic damages include all past and future medical expenses resulting from the delay: the additional surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, hospitalizations, medications, and ongoing care that you would not have needed if the cancer had been caught on time. They also include lost income and lost future earning capacity if the cancer or its treatment has affected your ability to work.

Non-economic damages address the physical pain and suffering caused by the more advanced cancer and the more aggressive treatment, the emotional distress of learning that your cancer should have been caught sooner, the loss of normal life experiences, and the diminished quality of life that results from a worse prognosis.

In wrongful death cases, where the delayed diagnosis resulted in the patient’s death, the family can pursue compensation for loss of the patient’s future financial support, loss of companionship and guidance, the family’s grief and suffering, and funeral and burial expenses.

In cases involving particularly egregious conduct, such as a doctor who intentionally concealed abnormal test results or a hospital that systematically failed to follow up on cancer screenings, punitive damages may also be available.

To give you a sense of the range, delayed cancer diagnosis verdicts and settlements in Illinois have included $14 million for a delayed lung cancer diagnosis where abnormal chest X-ray results were not communicated, $12.35 million for an untimely diagnosis of breast cancer, $8.1 million for a failure to diagnose lung cancer that resulted in death, $6.5 million for failure to follow up on imaging that indicated coronary ischemia resulting in a heart transplant, $4.5 million for a radiologist who identified colon cancer on a CT scan but failed to directly notify the patient or the referring physician, and $2.3 million for a laboratory’s failure to properly read Pap smears leading to a delayed cervical cancer diagnosis. Every case is different, and I evaluate each one on its own facts.

What I Look for When Evaluating a Delayed Cancer Diagnosis Case

I am selective about the cases I take. That is not a warning to discourage you from calling. It is a promise that when I take your case, I believe in it and I will fight for it with everything I have.

Here is what I evaluate:

First, I look at the delay itself. Was there a clear point in time when the cancer should have been diagnosed? Is there documentation, whether imaging, lab results, patient complaints, or screening history, showing that a competent physician would have caught the cancer sooner? The more concrete the evidence of a missed opportunity, the stronger the case.

Second, I look at the impact of the delay. Did the cancer progress to a more advanced stage during the period of delay? Did the patient lose treatment options that would have been available with an earlier diagnosis? Did the prognosis change? If the delay did not meaningfully change the outcome, there may not be a viable claim, even if the doctor was negligent.

Third, I look at the damages. Delayed cancer diagnosis cases are expensive to litigate. They require oncology experts, radiology experts, pathology experts, life care planners, and economists. The damages need to be substantial enough to justify that investment. Cases involving progression from early-stage to late-stage cancer, cases involving wrongful death, and cases where the patient faces a significantly shortened life expectancy are the cases where I can make the biggest difference.

Fourth, I look at the defendants. Is the responsible physician covered by malpractice insurance? Is the hospital or medical group an institution with the resources to pay a fair settlement or verdict? Cases against well-insured defendants are cases where a recovery is actually achievable.

Why These Cases Require a Specialized Trial Lawyer

Delayed cancer diagnosis cases are among the most aggressively defended cases in medical malpractice. Hospitals and their insurance companies will hire top-tier defense lawyers and medical experts who will argue that the delay did not matter, that the cancer was already too advanced, that the patient’s outcome would have been the same regardless. They will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars defending these cases.

To win, you need a lawyer who can match them. Expert for expert. Dollar for dollar. Argument for argument.

I became a personal injury lawyer because of something that happened in my own family. When I was nine years old, my father was seriously injured on the job. I watched that injury consume 17 years of my family’s life. The stress, the lost income, the feeling of being powerless against a system that did not care. That experience is why I fight the way I fight.

I’ve tried over 30 cases to a jury. I trained at Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyer’s College in Wyoming, one of the most selective trial advocacy programs in the country. I’ve completed “The Edge,” an advanced program for experienced trial lawyers. When the insurance company on the other side sees my name on the case, they know I will take this to trial if that is what it takes to get you the compensation you deserve.

Frequently Asked Questions About Delayed Cancer Diagnosis Cases in Chicago

How do I know if my cancer diagnosis was delayed because of malpractice?

If you were diagnosed with cancer at a later stage and you had prior contact with a physician who either missed symptoms, failed to order tests, misread imaging or lab results, or failed to follow up on abnormal findings, there may be malpractice. The only way to know for certain is to have your medical records reviewed by an experienced attorney who works with qualified medical experts. I offer that review at no cost.

What is the statute of limitations for a delayed cancer diagnosis case in Illinois?

Two years from the date you knew or reasonably should have known of the malpractice, with an absolute maximum of four years from the date of the negligent act or omission. For minors, it is eight years or until the child turns 22, whichever comes first. These deadlines are strict. Do not wait.

What if the delay only shortened my life by a few years instead of being the sole cause of death?

Under Illinois’s lost chance doctrine, you do not have to prove that earlier diagnosis would have definitely saved your life. You only need to show that the delay reduced your chance of a better outcome. If a doctor’s negligence took a 70 percent chance of survival and turned it into a 20 percent chance, that lost 50 percent is compensable.

Do I need a medical expert to bring a delayed cancer diagnosis case?

Yes. Illinois law requires a Certificate of Merit from a qualified medical expert before a malpractice lawsuit can be filed. This expert must review your records and provide a written opinion that there is a reasonable basis to believe the doctor’s care fell below the standard. I work with leading oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, and other specialists to evaluate every case I consider taking.

What if my doctor says the outcome would have been the same regardless?

That is the most common defense in delayed cancer diagnosis cases, and it is not always true. Medical literature clearly establishes that earlier detection leads to better outcomes for most cancers. Our medical experts will review the specifics of your case, including the type and biology of your cancer, the staging at the time it should have been caught versus when it was actually diagnosed, and the treatment options that were available at each stage. If the evidence shows the delay mattered, we can overcome that defense.

How much does it cost to hire a delayed cancer diagnosis lawyer?

I work on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront and nothing out of pocket. My fee is a percentage of what we recover. If we recover nothing, you owe me nothing. There is zero financial risk to you.

Can the family file a case if the patient has died?

Yes. If a delayed cancer diagnosis contributed to a patient’s death, the family can file a wrongful death lawsuit. Under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, the lawsuit must be filed within two years of the date of death. The family can recover compensation for loss of financial support, loss of companionship, grief, and funeral expenses.

What makes DeSalvo Law different from other firms?

When you call my office, you talk to me. Not a paralegal. Not a case manager. Not a call center. Me. I personally evaluate every case, and if I take yours, I am your lawyer from start to finish. I’ve been doing this for over 27 years, I’ve tried over 30 cases to a jury, and I trained at the nation’s top trial advocacy programs. I also speak Spanish, and my office can assist bilingual families throughout the process. Your fight is my fight.

Free Consultation: Call Me Today

If you or someone you love was diagnosed with cancer that should have been caught sooner, I want to hear from you. Call me at 312-500-4500 for a free, no-obligation consultation. I’m available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You can also text me or reach out through our website at desalvolaw.com.

There is no fee unless we win your case. And I will be honest with you from the very first phone call about whether I think you have a case and what I think it could be worth.

Every day that passes with an undiagnosed cancer is a day that cannot be given back. But what we can do is hold the people who failed you accountable, and make sure you and your family have the resources you need to face what comes next. That is what I do.