@ Eshwar: It is sad that basically an entire diagnosis often depends on a pathology department. The Path MD is responsible for J's likely misdiagnosis of cancer. However, J's radiation oncologist is responsible for misdiagnosing the stage of cancer because he relied solely on a PET scan to stage the mets to J's neck. And, the PET was performed right after he had severe throat infections and allergic reactions. In addition, his ENT failed to biopsy anything that showed up on the PET scan. He also allowed the cancer to be staged according to the PET scan w/o biopsy and allowed treatment to be based on that flawed staging. The treatment protocol would have been entirely different if the staging had changed. I confirmed it with the medical oncologist who, by the way, said in writing that the nodes that lit up on J'S PET scan were not diagnostic of a malignancy. He sent us a copy of J's chart with that statement on it, transcribed onto his letterhead and signed by him.

So, in J's case, 3 of the 5 doctors who were primarily entrusted to his care failed him. All of them can be held accountable for their part in this mess. I will hold their feet to the fire to make sure they don't do the same thing to anyone else.