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Senior Trial Partner Daniel L. Freidlin, Partner Casey M. Hughes and Associate Keleisha A. Milton successfully obtained a Defense Verdict, in Nassau County Supreme Court, a case involving MCB’s client, a Breast Radiologist and Radiology Group, where the then 53-year-old plaintiff alleged a failure to diagnose breast cancer on a breast ultrasound. Plaintiff alleged that a nodule identified at the 7:00 position of the right breast, 1 cm from the nipple, was ill-defined, spiculated, and suspicious for cancer.
MCB demonstrated that the nodule was not spiculated, but rather macrolobulated (a benign feature) and benign in appearance. Plaintiff's ultrasound studies dating back over a decade demonstrated fluctuating multiple bilateral well-circumscribed hypoechoic nodules (MBWCHN). Our expert radiologist testified, and the plaintiff's expert agreed on cross-examination, that a biopsy is not necessary in the setting of a patient with MBWCHN, provided that the new nodule has similar benign characteristics. MCB argued that our client radiologist appropriately, and within the standard of care, assessed the nodule as BIRADS-2 benign.
One year later, the plaintiff developed breast cancer at the 6:00 axis, 3 cm from the nipple. Following biopsy, the patient's cancer was staged as IIIB and determined on pathology to be a triple-negative breast cancer. MCB argued that this was a different anatomic location, that the nodule from one year earlier had resolved, and that this wasa new interval cancer that had developed since the prior screening exam. We demonstrated that triple-negative breast cancer is extremely fast growing, such that it was not possible for the .9 x .5 x .4 cm nodule from one year earlier to have been the same lesion as the 1.8 x 1.4 x 1.4 cm cancer that later developed.
After over one day of deliberations, the jury returned a defense verdict.