Breast Cancer Negligence Compensation Claims Guide – How Much Compensation Can I Claim? Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis
By Stephen Hudson. Last Updated 26th August 2022. In this guide to making breast cancer negligence claims, you can learn more about how to make breast cancer misdiagnosis claims. To learn more about how much breast cancer compensation you could claim, contact our team.
On this page, you will find a full and detailed guide to the legal process used to make a personal injury claim for breast cancer compensation. It covers everything you will need to know and offers plenty of advice and information about both breast cancer, and the process of claiming medical negligence for breast cancer.
Instead of taking in the entire guide, you can simply skim it to get an idea of the information presented and then call Legal Expert on 0800 073 8804 to get further information and details.
Select a Section:
- A Guide To Breast Cancer Compensation Claims
- What Is Breast Cancer?
- UK Breast Cancer Statistics
- Compensation For Breast Cancer Screening Failure
- Delayed Diagnosis Or Misdiagnosis Of Breast Cancer
- Claiming Compensation For Breast Cancer Surgical Errors
- What Are The Symptoms Of Breast Cancer
- What Are The Different Breast Cancer Types?
- Clinical Guidelines For Breast Cancer Treatment
- Breast Cancer Compensation Case Study
- What Can I Include In My Breast Cancer Compensation Claim?
- Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis Settlements
- No Win No Fee Breast Cancer Claims
- How We Can Help With Cancer Misdiagnosis Claims
- Speak To Our Specialist Team Today
- Useful Links
A Guide To Breast Cancer Compensation Claims
Breast cancer claims
This guide takes for granted that the victim is making a claim within the personal injury claims time limit of three years. It is focused on breast cancer negligence claims. It also does not include any form of automated personal injury claims calculator, as these are rarely accurate enough to give a proper indication of the level of damages a person might realistically receive. These two caveats aside, this guide is intended to help people learn about the legal process that their solicitor will follow when making a claim on their behalf. It contains information such as:
- An overview of exactly what breast cancer is in medical terms, based on the solid medical knowledge of the condition.
- Some of the most pertinent statistics pertaining to breast cancer, and how common it occurs, as well as survival rates, etc.
- Information that pertains to cases of breast cancer that were overlooked during a breast cancer screening, and how a person is eligible to claim in such cases.
- Failure in the diagnosis process for breast cancer, including both misdiagnosis and late diagnosis are covered, and how a person can claim compensation in such a case.
- If a person has been injured through an error or accident during a surgical procedure, we cover how this could lead to there being a valid reason to claim compensation.
- A list of all of the main symptoms of breast cancer, as well as some of the tertiary symptoms a person will sometimes manifest.
- Information about all of the main types of breast cancer that a person can suffer from.
- An overview of the main methods that are applied to the treatment of breast cancer in most cases.
- A short case study that demonstrates clearly how a person who has suffered breast cancer due to some form of medical negligence was possible.
- A potential list of the types of damages that you might be able to claim as part of your damages settlement for breast cancer.
- A table that covers historical payments that we have seen victims of a clinical negligence claim in the past to be used as a yardstick for judging how much compensation you might be able to claim.
- Info covering the Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) that Legal Expert offers to all victims of clinical negligence in the UK as the simplest and most financially risk-free way to make a claim.
How Long Do I Have To Make Breast Cancer Claims?
As we mentioned earlier, the usual time limit for starting a personal injury claim for breast cancer negligence is three years from the date the negligence occurred or when you became aware of the negligent behaviour. This is a requirement under the Limitation Act 1980. There can be exceptions from this time limit, but usually only when a victim is under the age of 18 or lacks the mental capacity to act independently.
Once you get to the end of this guide, if you still have unanswered questions of any type, or need some extra information, then please just give us a call at the number you will find in the top section of this guide and we will do all we can to help you.
What Is Breast Cancer?
Breast cancer is fairly common in the UK and is the single type of cancer that women suffer from. Primarily, breast cancer occurs in the over 50s, but it can occur in much younger women as well. The National Health Service (NHS) offers free breast cancer screening tests to all women, regardless of age.
Breast cancer is a type of cancer that is genetically passed on from parents to children. So, if your family has a history of breast cancer, it is vital that you have regular screenings. Furthermore, conditions such as obesity and alcoholism can lead to breast cancer.
No matter how you contracted breast cancer, if you have a reason to claim compensation, then Legal Expert can help you. Use the telephone number in the final section of this guide to contact us about breast cancer negligence claims.
UK Breast Cancer Statistics
Research from Cancer Research UK has found that in Britain each year, there are over 55,000 cases of breast cancer reported. 23% of these cases could have been prevented in some way. Overall, there are on average just under 12,000 fatal cases of breast cancer in the UK each year (this includes men). This means that the fatality rate of breast cancer is somewhere around 22%. Many of these fatal cases could have formed breast cancer compensation claims that a personal injury solicitor could have pursued on behalf of the dependants of the victim.
Legal Expert is one such personal injury lawyer. We can help both men and women who have suffered some form of clinical negligence, which caused their breast cancer to become worse, make a claim. To learn more about breast cancer negligence claims, call us on the telephone number at the bottom of this guide to find out how we can help you.
Compensation For Breast Cancer Screening Failure
Although the NHS does the best it can to screen all women for breast cancer regularly, there are times that the system breaks down and women miss their breast cancer screening. If this were to happen to you, and you then contracted breast cancer, you would be able to make a claim for compensation for delayed cancer diagnosis.
At certain times in the past, the NHS has failed to operate a robust procedure for ensuring that all women are notified of their upcoming breast cancer screenings. However, the modern process in place to action this is far more reliable. Even so, mistakes still happen, and women contact breast cancer that could have been caught sooner and stopped better.
If you have contracted breast cancer and it was treated late because the NHS failed to ensure that you received your allotted breast cancer screening appointment, then call Legal Expert on the telephone number at the bottom of this page so we can help you claim.
Delayed Diagnosis Or Misdiagnosis Of Breast Cancer
To answer the question, how much compensation for the misdiagnosis of cancer? The cancer misdiagnosis compensation amounts will always be driven by the severity of the case.
A case of breast cancer misdiagnosis will have occurred if your doctor failed to diagnose you with breast cancer and instead diagnosed you with a different type of cancer or another illness altogether. When misdiagnosis occurs, it will cause a delay in the treatment of the real medical condition, which in the case of breast cancer, could be life-threatening.
If your breast cancer was misdiagnosed, then you should be able to make a breast cancer misdiagnosis compensation claim. Call Legal Expert on the number at the bottom of this guide to proceed with breast cancer negligence claims, so that we can get a cancer misdiagnosis settlement for you.
Claiming Compensation For Breast Cancer Surgical Errors
Another form of clinical negligence that cloud lead to a person needing to make a cancer compensation claim, is medical negligence that occurs during surgery. When a surgeon is carrying out a surgical proceeded, if they make a mistake, they could injure the victim. Additionally, accidents such as errors made by the anaesthetist could lead to the victim coming to harm during the operation, and once again, the victim would be able to claim breast cancer compensation.
If you were harmed during a surgical procedure, call Legal Expert today on the telephone number at the bottom of this guide.
What Are The Symptoms Of Breast Cancer
In most cancer misdiagnosis cases, the doctor will have missed one or more of the typical symptoms of breast cancer and failed to reach the correct conclusion about the illness you are suffering from. This could lead to the victim making cancer misdiagnosis claims. The cancer misdiagnosis payout would be driven by the severity of the case. The primary symptoms of breast cancer are:
- A swollen or lumpy armpit.
- A swollen or lumpy breast with the possibility of a rash.
- Odd skin shapes such as dimples on the breast.
- Changes in the way the nipple looks, shape, inversion or positioning.
- A discharge, likely bloody from the nipple.
These symptoms may mean you have breast cancer, and if your doctor missed them, Legal Expert can possibly help you claim compensation. Call us at the number at the bottom of this page to find out.
What Are The Different Breast Cancer Types?
In order to establish breast cancer medical negligence, if you were to speak to any cancer claim specialist, they will identify four separate types of breast cancer, which you may be able to see if you were to look at a number of breast cancer pictures and these are:
Invasive – this is the most typical type, so therefore also the most common one that people need to make a delayed diagnosis compensation claim for. This type sees cancer growing within the ducts of the breast and then spreading from there.
The other three types are far less common, and these are:
- Paget’s disease (when it occurs within the tissue of the breast).
- Breast cancer which is inflammatory and not invasive.
- Breast cancer which is invasive but effects the lobes of the breast.
Whichever type of breast cancer you have suffered from, if there was clinical negligence involved in its diagnosis or treatment, then call Legal Expert on the telephone number at the bottom of this page to start a claim.
Clinical Guidelines For Breast Cancer Treatment
When it comes to treating breast cancer NHS doctors tend to rely on one primary method and three secondary types of therapy. Any breast cancer information about treatment would cover surgery as the primary method of treatment, physically removing the tumour.
The secondary methods of treatment are radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy. In less advanced cases, these methods of treatment might be tried on their own. In more serious cases, they would be used after surgery to stop the tumour from growing back.
No matter the breast cancer causes that lead to you suffering from the illness, if clinical negligence was involved you should call Legal Expert on the telephone number below to begin a claim.
Breast Cancer Compensation Case Study
This cases study is a rather extreme example of a cancer late diagnosis claim. In this specific case, a middle-aged woman visited her GP to report a lump that she had found in her breast. Her GP initially diagnosed the problem as a benign tumour. Her GP sent here to the cancer unit at her local hospital, where she underwent a number of tests to diagnose her medical condition and see if she had any breast cancer symptoms.
The victim was pregnant at the time the GP made the initial diagnosis and the tests were done. She gave birth to her child a few months later, and yet again the doctors at the hospital tested here for breast cancer and told her there was no sign of a malignant tumour.
Some 14 months later, the victim noticed the lump was much bigger, and upon returning to the hospital, was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Chemotherapy was tried, and it was unsuccessful. Following this failed treatment, the entire affected breast was removed.
Later, the victim made a claim for late diagnosis of breast cancer, and successfully won a total settlement of £70,000.
Legal Expert can help you in the same way that this woman was helped. Call us at the number at the end of this guide to find out how to make breast cancer negligence claims.
What Can I Include In My Breast Cancer Compensation Claim?
Once you have received your breast cancer treatment, and have recovered, if the treatment or diagnosis involved some form of clinical negligence, you could be able to make a claim for compensation. Each successful claim will have several different types of damages built into the eventual settlement. These damages fit under the two main headings of special and general damages like this:
- Special damages (pertaining to all the non-physical loss attached to the condition):
- Loss of current income (through time off work).
- Loss of future income (through the reduced capacity to work in the future).
- Care costs (if you had to hire in-home help or a nurse).
- Medical fees (if you had to pay for any treatment out of your own pocket).
- Travel costs (for any travel related to the medical condition or the claim).
- General damages (pertaining to all the physical things about the medical condition):
- Permanent disabilities (if after recovery you will be disabled in some way).
- Long-term recovery (if your life quality is lowered for some time as you recover).
- Psychological injury (including but not limited to depression, PTSD and anxiety).
- Pain and suffering (of the condition itself and the treatment).
To get a better indication of exactly the types of damages you might be able to claim, call Legal Expert on the number down near the bottom of this guide. Our team is ready to help with breast cancer negligence claims.
Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis Settlements
Giving a completely accurate estimation of just how much a person might claim in compensation for medical negligence involving a case of breast cancer is very hard, as each individual case is unique. So, how much could be awarded in breast cancer negligence claims?
However, we have produced the table below, that is based on historical data of payments made in similar cases, that can be used to get a rough estimate of how much you may be able to claim for damages in your own case:
| Type of Injury | Severity of Injury | Notes About the Injury | Compensation Bracket |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychiatric damage (general) | Severe | Very long-term mental injuries that will affect the life of the victim very badly. | £54,830 to £115,730 |
| Psychiatric damage (general) | Moderately Severe | Long-term mental injuries that will affect the life of the victim very badly. | £19,070 to £54,830 |
| Psychiatric damage (general) | Moderate | Fairly long-term mental injuries that will affect the life of the victim very badly. | £5,860 to £19,070 |
| Psychiatric damage (general) | Less Severe | The level of award within this bracket will consider how long the injured person suffered the effects of the psychiatric injury. | £1,540 to £5,860 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Severe | In these cases, the injured person will be unable to work or function at anything approaching a pre-trauma level. | £59,860 to £100,670 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Moderately severe | In these cases, the effects will be significantly disabling for the forseeable future, despite some recovery being anticipated with professional help. | £23,150 to £59,860 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Moderate | The recovery in these cases will be largely complete and continuing effects won’t be grossly disabling. | £8,180 to £23,150 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Less severe | A virtually complete recovery will have been achieved within 1-2 years and only minor symptoms will remain over any longer period. | £3,950 to £8,180 |
| Scarring | Severe | A single disfiguring scar on the chest will be appropriate for this bracket | £7,830 to £22,730 |
| Mental anguish | Fear of impending death or reduction in expectation of life | £4,670 |
The compensation brackets featured in the table above (which, as said earlier, are based on historical data) are specifically based on the latest Judicial College guidelines. Medical negligence solicitors involved in a personal injury claim may use the brackets featured in these guidelines to help them work out the value of injuries.
We can give you a much more accurate idea of just how much you may be able to claim in compensation in your own case if you call Legal Expert on the number down at the bottom of this page.
No Win No Fee Breast Cancer Claims
If you need to make a compensation claim for medical negligence that occurred during the diagnosis or treatment of breast cancer, then Legal Expert offers our claims service to every resident anywhere in the UK. Our team are experienced in handling breast cancer negligence claims.
This is a No Win No Fee style of claims service, so this means it is also a wholly risk-free way to make a claim from a financial viewpoint. The way it works is like this; you don’t pay us anything when we start the claims process on your behalf. No matter how long it takes to resolve your claim, we still won’t ask you to pay anything. And if for some reason we can’t actually make a claim for you, then we clean the slate and you pay nothing at all. When you do receive a damages payment though, we will then expect you to pay your legal bill. So, call Legal Expert on the number below so we can start your claim for you today.
How We Can Help With Cancer Misdiagnosis Claims
If you doctor missed breast cancer symptoms such as breast cancer lumps, or errors were made in the treatment of your breast cancer, then Legal Expert can very probably help you claim compensation. We have a long history of winning such cases and hundreds of satisfied clients. We can do exactly the same for you.
We always aim to try and get you the very most in damages that we can, but in the same breath, will never overplay our hand and risk your claim. We are always on hand to answer questions, and whenever anything happens with your claim, we will update you on its status.
Call Legal Expert on the number below so that we can explain more fully just how we can help you make a compensation claim.
Speak To Our Specialist Team Today
We hope our updated guide to breast cancer negligence claims has helped you to learn more about claiming for the misdiagnosis of breast cancer.
Legal Expert can help you claim the compensation you are entitled to you if your case of breast cancer involved some form of medical negligence. Call us now on 0800 073 8804 and once we have asked you a few questions about our case, we will let you know what you need to do next from a legal point of view.
Useful Links
For more guidance and support on breast cancer screenings and medical negligence claims, you can check out the guides and other pages linked to below:
Our updated guide on how to claim compensation for medical negligence by a GP.
An NHS guide to breast cancer in women.
A guide to clinical / medical negligence claims
We have provided you with a link here, that will send you to a complete guide for claiming for cases of clinical negligence.
A guide to cancer misdiagnosis claims
We have provided you with a link here, that will send you to a complete guide for claiming for cases of cancer misdiagnosis.
We have provided you with a link here, that will send you to a page published by the NHS that details breast cancer, its causes, symptoms and treatment.
UK Government information on cancer research
We have provided you with a link here, that will send you to a page published by the UK Government regarding research into the cause and treatment of cancer.
Further Helpful Guides
- How Much Compensation For Orthopaedic Negligence Claims?
- A Guide to Bed Sores/Pressure Sore Negligence Compensation Claims
- Negligence Carpal Tunnel Surgery Claims Guide
- How To Make A Dry Needling Negligence Claim
- Eastbourne Walk-In Centre Medical Negligence
- Sutton Coldfield Walk-In Centre Medical Negligence
- Abingdon Medical Negligence Solicitors
- Aldershot Medical Negligence Solicitors
- Ashford Medical Negligence Solicitors
- Our guide explains how you could potentially claim for laser hair removal burns caused by negligent actions.
Breast Cancer Negligence Claims FAQs
When should I begin screening for breast cancer?
If breast cancer is detected at the earliest possible chance, the patient has the best chance of survival and fully recovering from breast cancer. However, breast cancer misdiagnosis at this early stage could lead to diagnosis too late for someone to have effective treatment.
Women are advised by the NHS to regularly check their breasts for any lumps or anything out of the ordinary.
Some of the earliest screening may be carried out by a mammogram. These can detect breast lesions. Women between 50 and 70 are asked to undergo screenings every three years.
How long does a negligence claim take?
The amount of time it can take for breast cancer negligence claims or other medical negligence claims to complete can vary substantially. There are several variables which influence how complex a medical negligence claim can be and the time required to process it. These include what exact injuries or illnesses are involved and whether or not the defendant accepts liability.
In more straightforward cases, where the defendant accepts liability early on, the claim may be resolved in less than a year. More complex medical negligence claims can take multiple years to conclude.
What can you claim for negligence?
There are two main types of damages which could be included in a personal injury claim for medical negligence. One is general damages, which covers the physical and psychological effects negligence has had on the victim. How much you could receive under general damages depends on the exact injuries you’re claiming for and how severe they are.
If it’s possible to claim for general damages, then you may also be able to claim for special damages. Compensation for special damages is designed to cover for financial losses directly linked to the negligence and subsequent injuries you’ve suffered.
How is breast cancer diagnosed and treated?
Breast cancer is usually treated through a combination of three forms of investigation. These are, clinical examination, mammogram or biopsy and ultrasound scan. This process is known as the triple test. Breast cancer is diagnosed if and when the results of all three of these tests show that the person has cancer.
Once cancer has been diagnosed, the main treatment options are radiotherapy and hormonal therapy, chemotherapy and surgery. Treatment may also involve specially targeted drugs.
If you have been affected by the misdiagnosis of breast cancer, you could make breast cancer negligence claims with our team.
