If you received a cervical cancer diagnosis within the last five years after receiving a normal Pap smear result, you may have a legal claim. Lawyers are investigating patient claims that receiving a false “normal” result on a Pap smear prevented them from catching cervical cancer early on.

Cervical cancer once had one of the highest mortality rates of any cancer. However, over 60 years ago, the Pap test (also known as a Pap smear) was developed, and since then, the cervical cancer death rate has dropped significantly.  

If performed regularly, Pap smears are extremely effective in detecting early signs of cervical cancer, enabling doctors to make a cervical cancer diagnosis earlier and increase a patient’s chance of survival. So, if a patient regularly gets Pap smears, they should be very unlikely to get cervical cancer and be even less likely to receive a diagnosis at a late stage of the disease.

However, some patients have claimed that they received a cervical cancer diagnosis, even a diagnosis of late-stage cervical cancer, after getting Pap smears regularly and receiving a “normal” Pap smear result.

This can occur for several reasons. Because Pap smears are so common, hospitals and laboratories have to process thousands of samples. In fact, the Center for Disease Control reported that Pap tests were ordered or provided in almost 17.4 million office visits, and in almost 3.5 million outpatient visits in 2014.

Pap tests have to be examined by people, and not processed mechanically. So, if a laboratory technician has to process many Pap tests, they make mistakes, especially if they are overworked or the lab is understaffed. These circumstances could lead to a laboratory technician incorrectly assessing a sample and missing the presence of cancerous cells. In other cases, two test results could be mixed up, and a patient could receive the wrong results.

In fact, the American Cancer Society noted that the fact that each Pap test has to be examined individually by the human eye, and the testing cannot be mechanically done, is one of its greatest weaknesses as a diagnostic tool.

These cases could result in a patient receiving a normal pap result when they do, in fact, have precancerous cells or cancer. In some cases, patients who receive a normal Pap smear return several years later to receive a late-stage cervical cancer. Sometimes, it can be too late to treat the disease at this stage. This is especially devastating because the disease could have been prevented had the pap result been given correctly.

If you were diagnosed with cervical cancer or if a loved one died of cervical cancer, and you believe that the laboratory incorrectly provided a normal pap smear result, you may have a legal claim. Filing a cervical cancer diagnosis lawsuit could help you receive compensation for the following:

• hospital stays
• medical expenses
• missed work
• pain and suffering
• wrongful death

An experienced cervical cancer lawyer can help you obtain medical records and other documentation and information you will need to build a successful case.