Legal sources said the judgment in Aine McSweeney’s case is important in relation to breast cancer and breast radiology services.

An expert witness said the physiotherapist’s assessments of the patients were “inadequate and unchanging” even though “a real red flag” had been raised when the woman’s condition had not improved

The cancer burden is rising worldwide, with 20 million new diagnoses annually. Psychological needs of cancer patients are increasingly recognised, and psycho-oncology teams are developing.

Aoife O’Donovan was only 17 years of age when she received the lymphoma cancer diagnosis after she was admitted to the Bon Secours Hospital, Cork with abdominal pain