Medical malpractice is the term which is used to describe any failure of a physician to provide the expected standards of care to their patient. In terms of cancer, medical malpractice claims usually relate to a failure to adequately diagnose and treat a specific cancer in a patient. If it can be proved that the failure of the physician to diagnose the cancer compromised the patient's chances of survival, or caused greater levels of pain or other complications than would usually have occurred, then a cancer medical malpractice claim may be made. This is equally true if the physician diagnosed the cancer but did not follow the accepted standards of care in terms of treatment. So if the treatment choices which were given by the physician were different to those which would normally be followed, and they too compromised the patient's safety and quality of life, this also is considered cancer medical malpractice.