Not every bad medical result is malpractice. Harm suffered because of your cancer treatment (or lack thereof) is only malpractice if the doctor or healthcare professional violated the “medical standard of care”. The medical standard of care is developed by the medical community itself and is how a reasonable, trained doctor should have acted under the circumstances. Factors that influence the medical standard, and thus determine the treatment you should have received, include: - The patient’s age and medical history, - Geographic location, - Factors such as how aggressive the cancer was, whether it had spread throughout the body and the location of the cancer.