Breast cancer negligence claims often turn on timing: when symptoms were first reported, when imaging or pathology should have raised concern, and whether earlier intervention would have changed the patient’s outcome. In this webinar, Dr Vasileios Angelis explores how delays in diagnosis and treatment can affect breach, causation, prognosis and damages in medico-legal breast cancer claims.

About the Speaker

Dr Vasileios Angelis is a Consultant Medical Oncologist at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, specialising in breast oncology.

He has extensive experience treating patients with breast cancer and providing medico-legal expert evidence in cases involving delayed diagnosis, treatment decisions, prognosis and causation. His clinical focus includes breast cancer subtypes, systemic therapies, stage progression and the treatment burden associated with later diagnosis.

Webinar Key Themes

In this session, Dr Angelis outlines how solicitors can approach breast cancer negligence claims with a clearer clinical and evidential framework.

Key medico-legal insights include:

• Breast cancer claims commonly involve referral failures, imaging errors, pathology mistakes, follow-up issues and communication breakdowns.
• Causation often depends on whether the delay caused stage progression, reduced survival prospects or increased treatment burden.
• Treatment burden can be a significant head of damage, even where overall survival is not materially affected.
• Expert selection is critical. Breast radiologists, breast pathologists and breast oncology experts each answer different medico-legal questions.
• A clear clinical timeline is essential: first symptom, first presentation, investigation, result, breach date, eventual diagnosis and treatment.

Dr Angelis also discusses the importance of tumour biology, particularly in HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancers, where even short delays can significantly affect outcome.

Read the full medico-legal article here >