A biopsy involves taking a sample of tissue and cells from a suspicious lump or mass detected from a recent scan. This most often involves painful incisions, especially if an internal organ is involved.

As a routine procedure, your consultant doctor will insist that a biopsy sample is taken by the usual method of a fine needle. The doctor then says that the needle biopsy is safe and if it is cancer, it will not cause any of it to spread - and the only way to diagnose if it is cancer, is to do a biopsy!

The usual mode of thinking is, “you better get that checked out, just in case”! Unfortunately, very few people are aware of the dangers and risks of having a biopsy. The only concern for most people would be private costs, pain involved and time delay. However, very few people are aware that a biopsy itself can be dangerous to your health.

Should I have a biopsy?

Biopsies hold potential problems which everyone should be aware of. People need to be informed of the possible consequences from having a biopsy.

Unfortunately, biopsies disturb the tumor site, and upon withdrawal of the biopsy needle the sample is dragged through healthy tissue, increasing the risk of the odd cancer cells escaping and being left behind in the healthy tissue. Although biopsies are done very quickly, this still does not eliminate this big risk. Unfortunately, the large majority of people who are eventually diagnosed with cancer have undergone some form of biopsy.

Do biopsies increase the risk of cancer spreading?

A biopsy is when a small sample of flesh from an organ is cut out so that it may be examined under a microscope by medical staff. The staff then analyse the cells from the sample to see how many of those cells are dividing. If the sample shows that 15% or more of those cells are dividing, (compared to 1% in healthy tissue), then that cell sample shows abnormal cell growth, or cancer.

Cancer is normally considered to be of rapid cell growth. However, the entire mass of cancer normally grows rather slowly because it is encased from the rest of the body. The cancer grows inside a wall, or a shell. The body tries to protect itself by building a wall around the cancer to keep any of the cancer cells from leaking out. In reality, some cancers are very slow-growing, while others can be very fast. When cancer does leak out, doctors refer to this as being "metastasized", ie. it has spread to other bodily organs.

Doctors will recommend that if the lump is cancerous, it is essential that you know about it in order for you to start treating the cancer as early as possible. They will also explain that a biopsy sample will be taken by the use of a very “fine” needle, and will be done as quickly as possible.

Some medical and holistic experts believe that if the sample IS cancerous, the biopsy is likely to cause it to start spreading, by breaking through the casing that seals it off from the rest of the body.The biopsies are carried out as quickly as possible, because doctors are aware of the high risk of possible cancer cells spreading.

The biopsy itself can start the spread of the cancer from the inside of the casing which the cancer was in. Remember, the body protects itself from having the cancer spread - it builds a wall around the cancer. Unfortunately, the width of that “very fine needle” may be hundreds, if not thousands of cells thick. Once you penetrate that wall, even with a very fine needle, the cancer cells can leak out and circulate throughout the body. These cancer cells can then enter the bloodstream and be distributed throughout the entire body within a few seconds.

It is possible that your immune system may be strong enough to handle these odd stray cancer cells, but what if you have just allowed the doctor to metastasize your cancer? What had possibly been a slow-growing cancer with no metastasis, has in one split-second become a cancer which might now be spreading throughout your body - requiring immediate, urgent treatment. Before the biopsy it was a suspicious mass and you had time to learn about the many alternatives to chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.

What other option do I have?

There are superior alternatives, such as advanced thermography, which do not use mechanical pressure (which can spread cells that are already malignant) or ionizing radiation (ie: mammograms) and this advanced thermography can detect signs of breast cancer years earlier than either mammography or a physical exam.