The biopsy results help your health care provider determine whether the cells are cancerous. If the cells are cancerous, the results can tell your care provider where the cancer originated — the type of cancer. A biopsy also helps your care provider determine how aggressive your cancer is — the cancer's grade.
While a biopsy may sound scary, it's important to remember that most are entirely pain-free and low-risk procedures. Depending on your situation, a piece of skin, tissue, organ, or suspected tumor will be surgically removed and sent to a lab for testing.
A “positive” or “involved” margin means there are cancer cells in the margin. This means that it is likely that cancerous cells are still in the body. Lymph nodes. The pathologist will also note whether the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes or other organs.
When a biopsy may be needed. A biopsy can be used to investigate abnormalities, which can be: functional – such as kidney or liver problems. structural – such as swelling in a particular organ.
Although tests aren't 100% accurate all the time, receiving a wrong answer from a cancer biopsy – called a false positive or a false negative – can be especially distressing. While data are limited, an incorrect biopsy result generally is thought to occur in 1 to 2% of surgical pathology cases.
The most common types include: (1) incisional biopsy, in which only a sample of tissue is removed; (2) excisional biopsy, in which an entire lump or suspicious area is removed; and (3) needle biopsy, in which a sample of tissue or fluid is removed with a needle.
Some types of inflammation are readily diagnosable by the primary care physician, such as an infected skin wound that is tender, hot, and draining pus. Other types of inflammation are not so readily apparent clinically and require biopsy to distinguish them from neoplasms.
Not knowing when the results will be ready and not understanding why testing sometimes takes longer than expected can cause extra concern. Routine biopsy and cytology results may be ready as soon as 1or 2 days after the sample gets to the lab. But there are many reasons some take much longer to complete.
Sometimes, a biopsy reveals that the suspicious area contains only benign, or non-cancerous, cells. This might mean you do not need treatment, such as surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy.
In most cases, biopsies are outpatient procedures, so you won't need to stay in hospital overnight. However, occasionally, some types of biopsy, such as those where a tissue sample needs to be taken from an internal organ, may require a general anaesthetic.
Some biopsies can be done in a healthcare provider's office, while others need to be done in a hospital setting. In addition, some biopsies can be done with a local anesthetic to numb just the local area involved. Others may need sedation or even full anesthesia that puts you completely asleep during the procedure.
A needle biopsy may reveal whether a mass or lump is a cyst, an infection, a benign tumor or cancer. An infection. Analysis from a needle biopsy can help doctors determine what germs are causing an infection so that your doctor can choose the most effective medications.
Suspicious mammographic findings may require a biopsy for diagnosis. More than 1 million women have breast biopsies each year in the United States. About 20 percent of these biopsies yield a diagnosis of breast cancer. Open surgical biopsy removes suspicious tissue through a surgical incision.
Many consultants prefer to see you in person even if the biopsies are good news, because there may still be important information they need to give you, and you may want to ask follow up questions. Also, it is not unusual for you to be sent an appointment BEFORE the biopsy results have come back from the path lab.
If the pathology report indicates breast cancer, it's likely your next step will be to visit with a breast cancer specialist, such as a breast surgeon or oncologist. Your detailed pathology report will help with clinical staging of the cancer. The stage, along with breast cancer type, will help guide the next steps.
All tissue that is removed is sent to a laboratory, where a pathologist will examine it under a microscope. The results will be available in about a week. If all the cancer and a margin of healthy tissue are removed during the biopsy, this may be the only treatment you need.
Size and shape of the cells
The overall size and shape of cancer cells are often abnormal. They may be either smaller or larger than normal cells. Normal cells often have certain shapes that help them do their jobs. Cancer cells usually do not function in a useful way and their shapes are often distorted.
An office-based procedure is a minor surgery, such as a biopsy, that is done an office setting on an outpatient basis, usually with some level of anesthesia.
Most women who have breast biopsies DO NOT have breast cancer. In fact, about 4 out of 5 breast biopsies are benign (not cancer).