BOSTON -- The death of a renowned Harvard scientist is now the subject of a malpractice lawsuit that names two of Boston's best-known hospitals -- Brigham and Women's and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

NewsCenter 5's David Boeri reported that Stephen Jay Gould was a best-selling writer and world-renowned biologist who modified Darwinism. He died at 60.

His family said that his cancer went undiagnosed by three doctors at the two hospitals because they never saw the cancer lesion on an X-ray.

"He wasn't diagnosed until it had already metastasized. That's malpractice right there," Gould's mother, Eleanor Gould, said.

"The top cancer institute, Dana Farber, and the top oncologists, you figure it would be a shock to find yourself in fourth-stage terminal cancer," Gould's widow, Rhonda Roland Shearer said.

Gould went for screening at lease three times per year, according to the lawsuit. His doctor, Robert Meyer, of Dana Farber, was also Gould's best friend.

"He said, 'Look, I am seeing the top oncologist,'" Shearer said.

In February 2001, an X-ray was taken of Gould's lungs. The radiologists at Brighams noticed nothing. The next X-ray, taken one year later in New York City, showed lung cancer that had gone to Gould's liver, spleen and brain.

"All of a sudden, out of the head of Zeus, he has fourth-stage cancer," Shearer said.

In 10 weeks, Gould was dead. Later, the family's attorney uncovered the X-ray from 2001 that revealed a 1-inch cancer lesion.

"At the time when the lung cancer was curable, it inexplicably was not detected by three physicians," attorney Alex MacDonald said.

The lawsuit comes as no surprise to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where officials said the claims against Mayer are without merit.

Brigham and Women's, where the two radiologists worked, said it would respond through the legal process.