Truck Accident Lawyer
Uber Accident Lawyer
Lyft Accident Lawyer
Knowledge, experience, and dedication have brought the lawyers of The Epstein Law Firm to the forefront of their profession. From personal injury to civil litigation, they have built a strong record of success in achieving justice for their clients.
Our practice is diverse and well-established. Recognizing that every case is unique, we always begin by listening to you.
The Epstein Law Firm, P.A. has been successfully representing clients throughout New Jersey since 1973
Hearing the word “cancer” is frightening enough. Learning that the cancer could have been found months or years earlier — that a scan was misread, a biopsy result was never shared, or symptoms were brushed aside while the disease quietly spread — adds a second injury on top of the first. Families in that position are left asking the same painful question: would things be different if someone had caught this sooner?
Sometimes the honest answer is yes. For many cancers, the stage at diagnosis is the single strongest predictor of survival. A cancer found while it is still small and contained can often be removed with surgery alone. The same cancer found after it has spread may require aggressive chemotherapy, may no longer be curable, and may take years of life that earlier treatment could have preserved. When that lost time was caused by a doctor, radiologist, pathologist, or hospital that failed to meet the accepted standard of care, New Jersey law treats it as medical malpractice — and the patient or family may be entitled to compensation.
The Epstein Law Firm, P.A. has represented New Jersey patients and families in medical negligence cases for decades, and the firm has handled injury and malpractice matters since 1973. This page explains, in plain language, how cancer misdiagnosis happens, which cancers are missed most often, what New Jersey law requires to prove a claim, and how our free case review works. If you are in the middle of treatment right now, your health comes first — but please do not wait too long to ask the legal questions, because New Jersey’s deadlines are unforgiving.
You do not need to know for certain that malpractice occurred before you call. Most families who contact us suspect something went wrong but cannot yet prove it. Sorting that out — with your records and independent medical experts — is the work a case review is designed to do.
The Epstein Law Firm
Cancer misdiagnosis legal help
The Epstein Law Firm can review your cancer misdiagnosis claim and explain the evidence, deadlines, and next steps that may apply.
Call now
(201) 231-7847Schedule your free case evaluation
A missed cancer diagnosis is rarely one dramatic mistake. More often, it is a chain of smaller failures — a test not ordered, a result not read carefully, a follow-up that fell through the cracks — and any link in that chain can be the one that costs a patient precious months. The failure points below are the ones we see most often when we reconstruct a delayed diagnosis.
Radiologists interpret enormous volumes of scans and films, and subtle findings — a small lung nodule on a chest X-ray, a faint density on a mammogram, an early lesion on a CT — can be overlooked or mistaken for something harmless. A misread becomes malpractice when a reasonably careful radiologist would have seen the abnormality or ordered closer follow-up, and when the report’s recommendations (a repeat scan in three months, a biopsy, a referral) were never carried out. We compare the original images against what a patient was told, because the difference between those two things is often the whole case.
A biopsy is supposed to give a definitive answer, but the answer is only as reliable as the process behind it. Specimens can be mislabeled or swapped between patients. Slides can be misread, with malignant cells classified as benign. A biopsy can also sample the wrong tissue and produce false reassurance while the actual tumor keeps growing. When a later biopsy finds cancer in the same area an earlier one cleared, the earlier pathology deserves a hard second look by an independent pathologist.
Some cancers are found late because the screening that would have caught them early never happened. A colonoscopy not offered to a patient of screening age. A Pap test or HPV test skipped for years. A low-dose lung CT never discussed with a longtime smoker. A PSA conversation that never took place. Screening guidelines exist precisely because these cancers are curable in their early stages and dangerous in their later ones — when a provider ignores a patient’s age, family history, or symptoms and orders nothing, that omission can fall below the standard of care.
One of the most heartbreaking patterns is the abnormal result that existed — and was simply never communicated. A radiology report recommends follow-up that no one schedules. A lab value trends in the wrong direction and no one calls. Research on diagnostic error has found that failures to deliver test results to patients are a recurring cause of cancer delays in particular. If you later learn that a report flagged your cancer months before anyone told you, that gap is powerful evidence, and it is exactly the kind of failure a records review is built to uncover.
Many delayed-diagnosis cases begin in an exam room, with real symptoms attributed to something benign: rectal bleeding blamed on hemorrhoids, a breast lump dismissed as a cyst without imaging, persistent cough treated as allergies, a changing mole never biopsied. Doctors are allowed honest judgment calls — but when symptoms persist or worsen and the workup never expands, continued reassurance without testing can cross the line from judgment into negligence.
Diagnostic-error research led by Johns Hopkins physicians, published in BMJ Quality & Safety, estimates that diagnostic errors cause roughly 795,000 deaths or permanent disabilities in the United States each year, and that cancers are one of the three disease categories responsible for most of that serious harm. The cancers below account for a large share of missed- and delayed-diagnosis claims, including the cases our firm reviews:
Cancer misdiagnosis is one form of diagnostic failure within the broader malpractice landscape — our page on medical misdiagnosis in New Jersey explains how these claims work across conditions, and our New Jersey medical malpractice overview covers the other categories, from surgical errors to birth injuries.
Cancer is staged by how far it has spread — from a small, localized tumor, to nearby lymph nodes, to distant organs. Treatment and survival track that stage closely. The National Cancer Institute’s SEER program reports five-year relative survival for breast cancer at about 99 percent when the cancer is found while still localized, compared with roughly 31 percent once it has spread to distant sites. Colorectal cancer shows the same pattern: about 91 percent for localized disease versus roughly 13 to 15 percent after distant spread. The exact figures vary by cancer, but the direction never does: earlier is better, and later is worse.
Delay also changes what treatment itself looks like. A patient whose cancer is caught late may face more extensive surgery, longer and harsher chemotherapy or radiation, and side effects that an earlier diagnosis would have avoided entirely. Some patients lose the option of curative treatment altogether. In a legal case, this is the heart of the harm: not just the diagnosis itself, but everything the lost time took away — treatment choices, quality of life, income during treatment, and, in the worst cases, years of life.
Some delays are even more stark, because the missed finding was not yet cancer at all. Colon polyps removed during a timely colonoscopy would never have become colorectal cancer. Cervical cell changes found on a Pap test can be treated before they turn invasive. Ductal carcinoma in situ found on a mammogram is not yet invasive breast cancer. When screening or follow-up fails at that precancerous stage, the failure does not just worsen a prognosis — it allows a preventable cancer to exist at all. Cases like these are among the clearest illustrations of why the standard of care treats screening and follow-up as seriously as diagnosis itself.
That is also why these cases turn on expert analysis of timing. Oncologists and specialists must reconstruct when the cancer was present and detectable, what stage it was likely at then, and what treatment and prognosis would have looked like with timely care. That comparison — then versus now — is what proves that the delay, and not just the disease, caused the damage.
A cancer misdiagnosis claim is a medical malpractice claim, and New Jersey requires proof of four elements. First, duty: a provider-patient relationship existed, so the doctor, practice, or hospital owed you competent care. Second, breach: the care fell below the accepted standard — what a reasonably competent provider in the same specialty would have done with the same symptoms, test results, and guidelines. Third, causation: the failure actually caused harm, meaning an earlier diagnosis would more likely than not have led to a better outcome — an earlier stage, less invasive treatment, or a better chance of survival. Fourth, damages: the delay produced real losses, medical, financial, and personal.
Each element ordinarily requires testimony from qualified medical experts in the same specialty as the provider whose care is in question — a radiologist to judge the reading of a scan, a pathologist to judge the reading of a slide, an oncologist to explain what timely treatment would have changed. A bad outcome by itself is not malpractice, and an honest error in judgment is not automatically negligence. But a missed finding that was there to be seen, a screening that should have been ordered, or a result that should have been communicated is not a judgment call — it is a failure, and New Jersey law allows patients to hold providers accountable for it.
Responsibility can also extend beyond the individual doctor. A hospital or practice group may be liable for the negligence of the nurses, technicians, and physicians it employs, and in some circumstances for providers a patient reasonably believed were part of the hospital’s team. A diagnostic group that never built a reliable system for communicating abnormal results has its own exposure. Identifying every provider and institution in the chain — the ordering physician, the radiology group, the laboratory, the hospital — is an early and essential part of building the claim, because a case brought against only part of the chain may leave compensation on the table.
Because the medicine drives everything, these cases are won or lost in the expert review long before a courtroom. That is why our process begins with records and specialists, not with filing paperwork, and why the next section — a New Jersey requirement most patients have never heard of — matters so much.
The Epstein Law Firm can review the evidence, insurance issues, and next steps that may matter in your cancer misdiagnosis claim.
New Jersey imposes a gatekeeping requirement that few other states have. Under the Affidavit of Merit statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-27, a patient who sues a licensed professional for malpractice must provide each defendant with an affidavit from an appropriate licensed expert stating that there is a reasonable probability the care fell outside acceptable professional standards. The affidavit is due within 60 days after the defendant files an answer to the complaint. A court may grant one additional period of up to 60 days for good cause — and no more.
For malpractice cases against a specialist, the expert generally must be qualified in the same specialty. If the affidavit is not served on time, the case can be dismissed. This is why cancer misdiagnosis cases cannot be built at the last minute: records must be collected, the timeline reconstructed, and the right specialists retained and convinced — all before the lawsuit is even filed, so the 60-day clock never becomes a threat. When you contact our firm, the affidavit of merit is part of the plan from day one, not an afterthought.
New Jersey’s statute of limitations for personal injury and medical malpractice claims, N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2, generally requires a lawsuit to be filed within two years. In an ordinary injury case, the clock starts on the date of the injury. Cancer misdiagnosis is different, because the injury — the lost chance at earlier treatment — is hidden. A patient cannot sue over a misread scan she does not know about.
New Jersey’s discovery rule addresses exactly that problem: in appropriate cases, the two-year period does not begin until the patient knew, or reasonably should have known, that she was injured and that the injury may have been caused by someone else’s fault. For a cancer patient, that may be the day a new doctor finally makes the diagnosis and questions why it was not made a year earlier. Courts apply the discovery rule carefully and defendants fight it hard, so never assume it protects you. If you even suspect your cancer was missed, the safest step is to have the deadlines analyzed now, while every option is still open — the same two-year framework also governs claims after a death, as our wrongful death page explains.
Compensation in a cancer misdiagnosis case is meant to account for everything the delay cost. That typically includes the cost of the additional and more aggressive treatment the patient now needs — more extensive surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and follow-up care — as well as future medical needs the earlier-stage treatment would have avoided. It includes income lost during treatment and, where the illness or treatment reduces a person’s ability to work, diminished earning capacity. And it includes the human losses New Jersey law recognizes: pain and suffering, disability, and the loss of enjoyment of life that comes with a harder fight and a worse prognosis.
When a delayed diagnosis leads to a patient’s death, New Jersey law provides related claims for the family: a survival action for the losses the patient experienced before death, and a wrongful death action for the financial losses of surviving dependents. New Jersey does not cap compensatory damages in medical malpractice cases. One exception applies: claims against nonprofit hospitals are capped at $250,000 under the charitable immunity statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-8. No honest lawyer can promise a particular result — every case depends on its own facts, the stage the cancer should have been caught at, and the evidence — but a properly documented case gives a family the means to pay for care and some measure of accountability for what was lost.
Our review process is thorough because New Jersey law demands it. It begins with a free, confidential conversation about what happened: when you first sought care, what you were told, when the cancer was finally found, and what your treating doctors have said since. There is no cost and no obligation, and if we cannot help, we will tell you plainly.
Next, we collect the complete record — not just discharge summaries, but the actual imaging studies, radiology reports, biopsy and pathology materials, lab results, office notes, and the messages and letters through which results were (or were not) communicated. We then build a timeline that lines up every appointment, test, and result against what the standard of care required at each step. That timeline is where missed follow-ups and unacted-on findings become visible.
The records then go to independent medical experts in the relevant specialties — radiology, pathology, oncology, and the specialty of the provider involved — who screen the case honestly. If the experts conclude the care met the standard, we will tell you that too. If they find a reasonable probability that the care fell below the standard and the delay changed the outcome, we prepare the affidavit of merit and file the claim within the deadline. Throughout, you deal with a law firm that has represented New Jersey injury victims since 1973, with offices in Rochelle Park, Montclair, and Englewood Cliffs — including the practice led by Michael J. Epstein. We handle these cases on contingency: no attorneys’ fees unless we recover compensation for you. As with all of our personal injury and malpractice work, the evaluation starts with a simple step — contact us or call (201) 231-7847.
In 2024, TopVerdict recognized Michael J. Epstein for a settlement on its list of the Top 20 U.S. Medical Malpractice Settlements — recognition earned in the same category of case this page describes. Michael J. Epstein was also named to the Super Lawyers Top 100 in New Jersey for 2026, and TopVerdict listed him among the Top 10 New Jersey Personal Injury Settlements of 2024.
The firm’s published medical malpractice results include a $10 million confidential settlement in a negligent-care case involving a home health care company and a $1.5 million jury verdict against doctors, described on our verdicts and settlements page. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome — every cancer case turns on its own stage, evidence, and medicine — but they reflect the level of preparation and expert support this firm brings to malpractice litigation.
Selected case results obtained by The Epstein Law Firm include a confidential $10 million settlement in a case exposing critical lapses in training and oversight within the home health care industry; a $1.5 million jury verdict on behalf of a husband and wife against doctors; and a $13.585 million confidential settlement. Every case is different, and these results do not guarantee a similar outcome in any other matter.
“I was extremely pleased with the Epstein law firm. Michael Epstein and his co-worker Evelyn were so helpful. They answered all my questions in a timely manner and made me feel at ease from day one. They continuously kept me informed by email and phone calls.”— Janice, Google review
“Epstein Law Firm is the best of the best. I cannot recommend them enough. They actually care, are amazing at their job, and deliver exactly what they say they can.”— AJ, Google review
Read more client reviews on our Google profile.
Call (201) 231-7847 for a free consultation today.
Tell The Epstein Law Firm what happened and get clear guidance about your injury claim and legal options.
Recognition applies to the named attorneys and selection years. See the linked profiles for details.
No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Rating methodology
Below are answers to common questions about cancer misdiagnosis claims in New Jersey. This information is general and not legal advice — contact our office for guidance about your specific situation.
A misdiagnosis means the condition was identified as something else — a malignant tumor read as benign, or cancer symptoms attributed to an unrelated illness. A delayed diagnosis means the correct diagnosis was eventually made, but later than it should have been, so the cancer had more time to grow and spread. Many cases involve both: a wrong answer first, then months of delay.
New Jersey treats both the same way: as a potential failure to meet the standard of care. What matters is whether a reasonably competent provider would have reached the right diagnosis sooner, and whether the lost time changed the outcome. An expert review of the records and timeline is how that question gets answered.
Sources: National Cancer Institute — Cancer Staging; AHRQ — Patient Safety Resources.
Not every delay is malpractice. The legal question is whether the provider fell below the accepted standard of care — for example, by failing to order screening or biopsy that guidelines called for, misreading imaging or pathology, or never communicating an abnormal result — and whether that failure caused harm by letting the cancer reach a later stage.
Because that judgment requires medical expertise, these cases are screened by independent physicians in the same specialty before they can proceed. If an expert finds a reasonable probability the standard was breached and the breach changed the outcome, the case has a foundation. A free records review is the practical first step.
Sources: New Jersey Law Revision Commission — Affidavit of Merit Report; NJ Courts — Rules of Court.
Research led by Johns Hopkins physicians, published in BMJ Quality & Safety, identifies cancers as one of the three disease categories behind most serious diagnostic-error harm. In malpractice-claim data, the cancers most often involved are lung, breast, colorectal, prostate, and melanoma — all highly treatable when caught early and dangerous when found late.
Cervical and pancreatic cancers also appear in these claims. What the cases share is not the cancer type but the failure point — imaging or pathology misread, screening never ordered, results never communicated, or symptoms explained away.
Sources: Newman-Toker et al. — Burden of Serious Harms from Diagnostic Error in the USA, BMJ Quality & Safety (2023); National Cancer Institute — Cancer Staging.
Very often, yes. Survival is closely tied to stage: the National Cancer Institute’s SEER program reports five-year relative survival for breast cancer at about 99 percent when found while localized, versus roughly 31 percent after distant spread. Colorectal cancer falls from about 91 percent localized to roughly 13 to 15 percent after distant spread.
Delay also changes treatment — later-stage cancers typically require more extensive surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation, with heavier side effects. In a claim, experts reconstruct the stage at which the cancer should have been found and compare it with the actual stage at diagnosis. That comparison is the core evidence the delay caused harm.
Sources: National Cancer Institute SEER — Breast Cancer Stat Facts; National Cancer Institute — Cancer Staging.
Generally two years under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2. Because a misdiagnosis is by nature hidden, New Jersey’s discovery rule can postpone the start of that period until you knew — or reasonably should have known — you were injured and that a provider’s failure may have caused it. For many patients, that moment is the day a new doctor finally makes the diagnosis and questions the delay.
Do not count on the discovery rule to rescue a claim. Courts apply it narrowly, defendants contest it aggressively, and a much shorter deadline — the affidavit of merit — also applies once a case is filed. Have your specific deadlines analyzed early, while treatment is ongoing.
Sources: NJ Legislature — N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2 Statute of Limitations Text; New Jersey Law Revision Commission — Statutes of Limitations Report.
An affidavit of merit is a sworn statement from a qualified medical expert — generally one who practices in the same specialty as the defendant — stating that there is a reasonable probability the care fell outside acceptable professional standards. New Jersey’s Affidavit of Merit statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-27, requires it in malpractice cases as an early check that the claim has expert support.
The affidavit must be provided within 60 days after the defendant files an answer. A court may allow one additional period of up to 60 days for good cause, and missing the deadline can result in dismissal. That is why expert screening begins during the case review, before suit is filed.
The most important records are the complete chart from every provider involved: imaging studies and radiology reports (not just summaries), biopsy and pathology reports and slides, lab results, office notes, referral records, and any letters or portal messages about test results. Together they let a reviewer reconstruct what was known, when it was known, and what should have happened next.
You have a legal right to your records; providers generally must respond to a written request within 30 days under federal law, though copying fees may apply. If your records are incomplete when you call, gathering them is part of our review.
Sources: NJ Department of Health — Health Care Quality; AHRQ — Patient Safety Resources.
Yes, New Jersey law provides two related claims when malpractice causes death: a survival action, which covers the pain, suffering, and losses the patient experienced before death, and a wrongful death action, which covers the financial losses of surviving dependents, such as lost support and funeral expenses. Both generally must be filed within two years of the death.
These claims require the same expert foundation as any malpractice case, including the affidavit of merit. Because the patient cannot explain what happened, the records, the timeline, and expert reconstruction carry the case — which is why preserving records and starting early matters so much for families.
Sources: NJ Legislature — N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2 Statute of Limitations Text; New Jersey Law Revision Commission — Affidavit of Merit Report.
Compensation can cover the economic losses the delay caused — additional and more aggressive treatment costs, future medical care, lost earnings or reduced earning capacity — plus non-economic losses such as pain, suffering, disability, and loss of enjoyment of life. New Jersey does not cap compensatory damages in medical malpractice cases. One exception applies: claims against nonprofit hospitals are capped at $250,000 under the charitable immunity statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-8.
The value of any case depends on facts no website can assess: the stage the cancer should have been caught at, the stage at diagnosis, the treatment each required, and the evidence available. Future needs often dominate, which is why oncologists, life-care planners, and economists may all help prove them.
Sources: NJ Courts — Rules of Court; The Epstein Law Firm — New Jersey Medical Malpractice Lawyers.
Nothing. The case review is free and confidential, and The Epstein Law Firm handles medical malpractice cases on contingency: there are no attorneys’ fees unless we recover compensation for you, with the fee taken from the recovery. Contingent fee arrangements in New Jersey are governed by the Rules of Court.
Contingency matters because misdiagnosis cases are expensive to prove — expert reviews in radiology, pathology, and oncology, plus depositions and trial preparation, cost substantial sums. On contingency, the firm advances those costs, so a family can pursue a valid claim regardless of its finances.
Sources: The Epstein Law Firm — New Jersey Medical Malpractice Lawyers; NJ Courts — Rules of Court.
$31,000,000
$13,585,000
*Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances. *No aspect of the advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court. View Rating Methodology
Δ
<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>
340 West Passaic Street Rochelle Park, NJ 07662
Fax: 201-845-5973 201-231-7847
Map + Directions
560 Sylvan Avenue, Suite 1000-A Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 (By Appointment Only)
201-734-3763
Map + directions
18-20 Lackawanna Plaza, Suite 200 Montclair, NJ 07042 (By Appointment Only)
973-381-8410
The Epstein Law Firm
The Epstein Law Firm