When a Florida doctor gives you an inaccurate medical diagnosis, it may cause more than just confusion. A medical misdiagnosis may result in you taking the wrong drugs or receiving the wrong treatment for your true condition. It may also result in your condition progressing past the point of it being treatable, and this is especially likely if you have cancer and doctors misdiagnose it as something else. While doctors might misdiagnose any form of cancer, research shows that misdiagnosing key cancer is especially common.
According to Medical News Today, many patients with kidney cancer initially hear from their doctors that they have kidney stones, rather than kidney cancer.
Why doctors misdiagnose kidney cancer as kidney stones
The main reason some doctors misdiagnose kidney cancer patients as having kidney stones is that the two conditions produce similar symptoms, especially early on. Symptoms including lower back pain, blood in urine, and exhaustion and fatigue are common among patients with both diagnoses, making it more difficult for physicians to identify one condition over the other.
What happens when doctors misdiagnose kidney cancer
When doctors fail to catch kidney cancer in time, it raises the chances of the cancer metastasizing to other parts of your body. Once this occurs, it may hurt your prognosis. Failing to promptly identify kidney cancer also leads to delays in treating it, which may also cause your condition to spread or worsen.
Because medical misdiagnosis is common, it is wise to get a second medical opinion anytime you get a serious diagnosis. If more than one doctor agrees on your diagnosis and how to treat it, you may feel that much more comfortable moving forward with treatment.