HEAD TRAUMA AND BRAIN TUMORS  [ back to What's New ]
The legal view of the connection between trauma and cancer mirrors the medical one. While most doctors will not accept the view that trauma can cause (i.e. create new) cancer; many are prepared to agree that trauma can activate and spread a latent or slow growing tumor which otherwise would have remained quiescent. A recent court decision in Michigan is an example. In Wilkinson v. Lee, decided 9/26/00, the Supreme Court of Michigan upheld a $175,000 jury verdict for a man who was diagnosed with a brain tumor 1.5 years after suffering head trauma in a car accident. The Court stated that a latent pre-existing tumor made the man an "eggshell plaintiff," who was entitled to recover because the trauma "triggered" or "precipitated" the extra growth of the tumor and worsening of symptoms.