The elements of a malpractice claim are:  · A professional duty was owed to the patient  · The physician breached that duty · Breach caused the injury  · The injury resulted in damages to the patient  The hardest element to prove is causation. This is because even if the doctor did perform a surgery, or diagnose in a timely manner, it is possible that complications would still arise. For example, cancer is known to be a deadly disease, so it can be difficult to show that a person’s lowered lifespan or lowered quality of life has been caused by the doctor’s delayed diagnosis, since it may have happened either way. However, in certain cases it can be proven that even though the doctor didn’t cause the cancer, the patient likely would have had a better outcome had the cancer been detected and treated earlier.