What is a biopsy?
A biopsy is a sample of tissue from a living organism which is used as a diagnostic tool. Biopsies are carried out to identify various diseases, or to eliminate certain causes for symptoms. There are a number of ways in which a doctor can collect a biopsy, and an assortment of techniques can be used to analyze the resulting sample. If you have been scheduled for a biopsy, you may want to talk to your doctor about the specific technique which will be used to collect the sample. When a patient complains of a medical problem, a doctor uses an assortment of techniques to diagnose the problem. Most doctors try to start with non-invasive procedures before they turn to taking tissue samples. A biopsy may be needed when other diagnostic tools reveal no obvious problem, or when a scan of the patient’s body shows that there is an area of irregularity which may require a closer look. The most basic biopsy can be taken with a scraping. A doctor would rub a swab on a patient’s skin, for example, to
There are essentially four types of biopsies: • Fine Needle Aspiration – Conducted right in your doctor’s office, a long thin needle is inserted into the mass, to draw out representative cells. If the lump can’t be felt (e.g., only showed up on a mammogram), then a sonogram can be used simultaneously to ensure the needle is inserted into the suspicious group of cells. One risk of inaccuracy here is that the report can come back benign if the mass contained both cancerous and non-cancerous cells, but the needle only withdrew the non-cancerous cells. • Core Biopsy – Conducted in the radiologist’s office, a core biopsy uses a slightly larger needle (about the size of the lead in a pencil) to take a plug of tissue for a broader sampling of cells. Like the fine needle aspiration, a core biopsy may be done in conjunction with a sonogram. • ABBI Biopsy – The Advanced Breast Biopsy Imaging system is similar to the machine used for core biopsies, but removes a greater amount of tissue, includin
