If you or a loved one received a normal pap smear and were then diagnosed with cervical cancer, you may be able to file a cervical cancer lawsuit against the lab or office which gave you a false negative.

Cervical cancer misdiagnosis lawsuits have been filed by patients who received a normal pap smear when, in reality, there were cancer cells growing in the body. A missed cancer diagnosis can allow cervical cancer to grow unchecked for years, only becoming symptomatic when it is too late to treat.

Cervical cancer affects the cervix, the small, lowest portion of the female reproductive system. Comprising the lowest part of the uterus and connecting to the vaginal canal, the cervix plays an important role in fertility, menstruation, and childbirth.

Cervical cancer is difficult to diagnose simply based on symptoms because many cases are asymptomatic until later stages of the disease. When cervical cancer is symptomatic, commonly reported symptoms include irregular vaginal bleeding, watery or bloody discharge, and pelvic pain.

Due to the lack of symptoms and difficult diagnosis, cervical cancer used to be the leading cause of cancer death in women. To combat the rising mortality rate in the United States, medical professionals introduced routine pap smears as a recommended aspect of female reproductive health.

A pap smear is a quick test administered during an office visit. During a pap smear, the cervix is swabbed with a specialized instrument that collects cervical cells for examination. The cells are then sent to a lab where they are screened for abnormal cell growth which can be an early indicator of cancer or a risk for cancer.

Doctors currently recommend that women over 21 have a pap test done once every three to five years. The CDC says nearly 28.5 million pap tests were ordered in 2015 alone with 69 percent of women age 18 or older having a pap smear within the last three years.

With a massive number of tests reviewed every year, human error may result in patients receiving normal pap smear results when they are at risk for cancer.

“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,” writes the American Cancer Society.

Because lab technicians are responsible for reviewing countless pap smear results on a regular basis, human error is bound to occur. However, some cervical cancer lawsuit argue that physician negligence is a factor when patients wrongfully receive normal pap smear results. Plaintiffs in lawsuits have claimed that a doctor or other physician may not administer the test correctly. Other patients claim that doctors may decide abnormal results do not warrant further testing, despite the risks with returning a normal pap smear result.

If you or a loved one received a normal pap smear result and later developed cervical cancer, you may be eligible for a cervical cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit. Damages recovered in a cervical cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit could compensate medical expenses, missed work, pain and suffering, wrongful death, and more.