Patients who had a false negative pap test or a missed cervical cancer diagnosis may be entitled to legal compensation.

Cervical cancer is a type of cancer that affects the cervix (the lowest part of the uterus which opens into the vagina). Typically, patients will not experience cervical cancer symptoms until the condition has progressed. Because of the difficulty to detect early cervical cancer based on symptoms alone, cervical cancer used to be one of the most common causes of cancer death in American women.

Once the condition progresses, symptoms may include abnormal bleeding, unexplained changes in menstruation, bleeding from cervical contact, painful sexual intercourse, and blood-tinged vaginal discharge.

Cervical cancer can be caused by a variety of different factors but is often caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is often asymptomatic in men and can be easily transmitted to women via unprotected sexual contact. Although there is an HPV vaccine, yearly pap tests starting at age 21 are recommended by gynecologists to screen for early signs of cervical cancer.

Pap tests were introduced 60 years ago and involve scraping cells from the patient’s cervix and examining the cells under a microscope for signs of early cervical cancer. Pap tests are recommended because cervical cancer has a high survival rate when found and treated in the early stages. Since the introduction of pap tests into modern medicine, the cervical cancer death rate has dropped significantly.

“Although the Pap test has been more successful than any other screening test in preventing a cancer, it’s not perfect. One of the limitations of the Pap test is that the results need to be examined by the human eye, so an accurate analysis of the hundreds of thousands of cells in each sample is not always possible,” states the American Cancer Society. The CDC says pap tests were ordered or provided in 28.5 million office visits in 2015.

Even though pap tests are the most effective way to diagnose early cervical cancer, a false negative pap test may occur up to 40% of the time. A false negative pap test can occur when abnormal cancer cells are not identified. Abnormal cells can be missed as a result of the test itself or negligence of medical professionals. Doctors can miss the signs of abnormal cells, misinterpret results, fail to further investigate abnormal cells, or improperly collect and preserve a pap test.

If someone is given a false negative pap test and later is diagnosed with stage 3 or stage 4 cervical cancer, they may be entitled to compensation via a false negative pap test lawsuit. These diagnoses of cervical cancer are particularly devastating because the cancer could have been caught and treated had the lab accurately interpreted the pap test. A false negative pap test lawsuit could help patients and their families gain compensation for medical expenses, hospital stays, missed work, pain and suffering, wrongful death, and more.