Biopsies and grading cells

MyJourneys

I haven't read the report for my last two biopsies yet, but the person who called said that my cells couldn't be graded, but a low grade was favored. My first biopsy report stated that the sample was too small to do a formal grade, but a low-grade was favored.

Isn't it normal for grading to be done during biopsies?

Journey

Icietla

Yes, grade is usually figured in the pathology reports on biopsies; however, there is a pretty simple possible explanation for there being inadequate tumor tissue in your ILC biopsy specimen. If you had core needle type biopsy, that would be a slim core of tissue. Now consider how ILC can be configured -- often it is in very thin, wispy sheets or strands, even as thin as a single cell in thickness. If you had a core needle biopsy taken and it had just a bit of such a strand or strands in it, the Pathology Lab would probably want a larger specimen (many more tumor cells) to be confident of having a representative section (of the whole tumor) for that determination.