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Needle Biopsy Linked To Spread Of Breast Cancer

The June 2004 Archives of Surgery reports that having breast cancer tissue biopsied with a needle seems to increase the chance that the disease will spread to the lymph nodes in the armpit known as sentinel nodes.

The research was done by Dr. Nora Hansen of the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. She studied 663 women with proven breast cancer. About half of the cancers were biopsied with a needle while the remainder had the tumor removed and then checked for cancer cells.

Women who had the needle biopsy were 50% more likely to have cancer in the sentinel nodes.

The researchers felt that this was “due in part to the mechanical disruption of the tumor by the needle.”

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