Needle Biopsy Linked to Breast Cancer Spread
 (NY, Reuters Health, 6/24/04)

As reported in the Archives of Surgery (June 2004), Dr. Nora M. Hansen of the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Health Center, Santa Monica, CA, and team, studied 663 women with breast cancer, half of whom had specimens taken with a needle; while the rest had the tumors removed without prior biopsy. The researchers found that women who had undergone needle biopsies had a 50% greater risk of the cancer spreading to the sentinel lymph node, thereby reducing the subject’s chance of survival. These findings suggest that disrupting a cancerous tumor with a needle may raise the risk of it spreading.