Most biopsies will only require local anaesthetic, which means you won't need to stay in hospital overnight. However, an overnight stay is sometimes required when the biopsy is carried out under general anaesthetic. After having a biopsy, you won't usually feel any pain.
These procedures are usually fairly quick and might take 15 to 30 minutes to perform, depending on the part of the body being biopsied.
You may receive local anesthetics to numb the area of the biopsy. Some surgical biopsy procedures require general anesthetics to put you in a sleep-like state. You might need to stay in the hospital after the procedure.
You may go home shortly after the procedure. If you got a sedative, you may need to stay longer. The biopsy site may be sore and tender for up to a week. If you had an open biopsy, a cut (incision) was made through the skin to expose an area of the bone.
Although biopsies are often ordered when there is suspicion of cancer, results often come back negative (you don't have cancer). Your healthcare provider may have ordered a biopsy because of health concern that's entirely unrelated to cancer. A biopsy is much like any other test.
The results, called a pathology report, may be ready as soon as 2 or it may take as long as 10 days. How long it takes to get your biopsy results depends on how many tests are needed on the sample. Based on these tests, the laboratory processing your sample can learn if cancer is present and, if so, what type it is.
Results from a biopsy are usually returned with 24 to 48 hours. Special biopsies performed during surgical procedures may take as little as 10 to 15 minutes. Depending on the type of biopsy, you may need to make a follow-up appointment with your doctor to discuss the results.
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.
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.
Biopsies involving an incision and stitches have longer recovery times, typically around two weeks. The recovery time for a non-invasive biopsy is around 24 hours. Your doctor can discuss your expected recovery time in greater detail.
Keep a bandage on the biopsy site for a day. Do not drive or run machinery for at least 24 hours. Do not do any strenuous exercise or lifting for at least two days.
Another important factor is whether there are cancer cells at the margins, or edges, of the biopsy sample. 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.
An open biopsy is surgery that uses local or general anesthesia. This means you are relaxed (sedated) or asleep and pain free during the procedure. It is done in a hospital operating room. The surgeon makes a cut into the affected area, and the tissue is removed.
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.
In general, Medicare coverage does cover all medically necessary treatment for cancer, which may include a biopsy to diagnose your cancer.
The main test to diagnose skin cancer is to take a sample (biopsy) of the area. You need to go to your GP if you are worried about an abnormal area of skin. Your GP might refer you to a specialist if they think you have skin cancer. Or they might do a biopsy themselves if they have had the specialist training.
Most wounds from a skin biopsy heal in 7 to 10 days. Biopsies in certain areas such as the lower legs usually take longer to heal. Until the wound heals, you want to stay out of swimming pools, hot tubs, and other places where the wound would be immersed in water.
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.
About 20 percent of these biopsies yield a diagnosis of breast cancer. Open surgical biopsy removes suspicious tissue through a surgical incision. This procedure requires either a general or local anesthetic and closure of the incision with sutures.
Can you diagnose without a biopsy? The short answer is no. While imaging and blood draws can show suspicious areas or levels, removing tissue and studying it is the only way to diagnose cancer 100%.
You may be able to see a growth. Certain things about the image might even suggest that it's likely to be cancerous. But there are many benign (noncancerous) tumors that look very much like cancerous growths. That's why, if your doctor suspects cancer from imaging, they will almost always follow up with a biopsy.