Misread Pathology Report, Patient Treated for Wrong Cancer for Years, Leading to $2.45M Verdict

​A jury in Connecticut found a gynecologist and an oncologist liable in a lawsuit alleging that a patient underwent treatment for the wrong type of cancer for three and a half years because both providers failed to properly read a pathology report, according to a recent report from Zarin's Medical Liability Alert (subscription required). The 62-year-old plaintiff was a patient of the defendant gynecologist when she underwent a tumor removal, and was later diagnosed with cancer of the appendix by a radiologist in his pathology report. The plaintiff claimed that the gynecologist either failed to properly read the report or failed to read it at all, and that the gynecologist negligently referred the patient to an oncologist for treatment of ovarian cancer. The defendant oncologist treated the patient for three and a half years for ovarian cancer. The patient underwent chemotherapy and was "deemed by the oncologist to be cancer-free, despite the decedent's complaints of continuing pain in her side."