Breast cancer spreading because of biopsy?

This is what I found on the topic, "There's little reason to worry that a biopsy or other surgical procedure will allow cancer cells to escape and spread within the body, specialists say.

"A common patient concern is that biopsies may cause microscopic cells from cancers to metastasize to other parts of the body," says Thanh Barbie, MD, a breast surgeon in the Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers at Dana-Farber. "However, medical evidence supports that this is unlikely, as most cancer cells that get displaced into the surrounding environment will likely be cleared by the surrounding immune cells."

In fact, a study of more than 2,000 patients carried out by Mayo Clinic scientists dispelled the myth that cancer biopsies cause disease to spread. The researchers showed that patients who have biopsy procedures to confirm their diagnosis and determine the cancer's stage had a better outcome and longer survival than patients who did not have a biopsy. http://blog.dana-farber.org/insight/2017/05/can-a-...

As a side note, Thanh Barbie was my breast surgeon at Dana Farber.

A breast biopsy is known to carry a small risk of spreading cancer cells through the breast. It is called needle track seeding, neoplastic seeding... it can be called a few things in the literature. Anyway, here is a recent article on it: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10549-017-4401-7

I was one of the "lucky" ones to have this happen. My MO and BS confirmed that yes, it happens, and it is probably the best explanation for my skin metastasis. However - and I can't emphasize this enough - don't let that scare you away from a biopsy.

If you are worried about it, here are a few things you can consider:

1.) Some types of breast biopsies are a higher risk for needle seeding than others - talk to your BS and inquire about whether a lower risk biopsy is possible.

2.) If you later have a lumpectomy/mastectomy, one possible solution is to surgically remove the needle biopsy path and surrounding skin with the tumor specimen. This is not always routinely done, as it is deemed unnecessary, and can have a worse cosmetic result. However, if you have a very aggressive cancer, these are good extra precautions to take. This was not done for me, but I think it might have prevented my current situation.

3.) Even though needle seeding can occur in breast biopsies, a few stray cancer cells *should* die from inadequate blood supply, radiation, chemo, etc. That is why you need to follow through with all your recommended treatment.

4.) Cancer can be spread by surgery, as others have pointed out. However, surgery is still the most important part of treatment for early stage breast cancer, and gives us the largest survival benefit.

Anyway, my situation was double bad luck: I was unlucky to have needle seeding at all, and unlucky because my cancer was super aggressive and the stray cells that were spread in the biopsy refused to die from standard treatment! Instead, my cancer actually GREW during radiation and dose dense AC chemo. So yes... It happened to me, it made a mess, and now I have to live with the consequences. But as the article points out, it is rare for it to happen in the first place, and it is usually only a problem for those of us with very aggressive cancers. Most people are not in that situation.

That being said, I wish they would change protocol and do more to prevent this. For those of us who are more at risk, the consequences are life threatening. Even though it's rare, it happens too often.

Anyway, it's good to be informed, but also be realistic about the risk. It's small. It is much riskier not to biopsy and treat a possible cancer. I hope that helps, and that you find some good solutions going forward. Please keep us posted.

I think if I were you, I would stick with MDAnderson and the American breast cancer findings. If your test is positive Nothing will make it worse. You can only get better. There are so many variables for each person's diagnosis it's hard to compare. Speculation without the details of your diagnosis can drive you mad. If you want every detail of every form of breast cancer and it's treatment and clinicals about to hit the patient scene MD Anderson is for you. It also helps with what questions to ask your doctors. Your doctor will listen to your wishes unless he feels you're doing yourself harm. If not find another. Mine gave me an array of choices but all hinged on my tumor. You'll still have weeks to wait on some of the path but you'll know your disease and choices you have. If you second guess the standard of treatment today then all the research, testing and studies with women in your position is of no availe for you. Hugs and strength to you. I would be interested I your diagnosis-hopefully negative. Be sure to check out After The Shock forum if your interested in additional communication with women at every leg of this journey. :-)

The article I posted above was out of MD Anderson, and they found that of 4,010 cases there were 8 cases of seeding from a breast biopsy. (This study does not address distant proliferation of cancer cells at all, only local spread within the breast.)

Anyway, according to those numbers you would have around a 0.2% chance of this happening. I just happened to be one of the 0.2%, and I had the risk factors they identified. In any case, that is an extremely low percentage. I hope that helps to reassure you. It's good to be aware and vigilant with this disease, but at the same time you will drive yourself crazy if you worry about every possible complication.

In many ways breast cancer is still on the fringes of our understanding. Although the standard of care isn't always perfect, I remind myself that it's still the best we have right now. Maybe one day there will be a real cure, but we're not quite there yet.

I was told that this is very possible but that most doctors will not admit this to patients. They may fear that patients will be afraid to have biopsies, which are obviously necessary. My sister's doctor does surgical biopsies for this reason. I asked lots of questions because I was curious as to how my lazy little grade 1 tumor managed to make it into my first sentinel node of 8. I had both types of biopsies on the same date. They did the needle type and also the stereotactic type on the same area, several samples from each. Needless to say, I was quite a mess, black and blue over almost the entire area of my 34B boob. My doctor did tell me that they think some of these cases of node isolated tumor cells and micromets may not be true mets but instead just the nodes doing their job picking up residue from the biopsies. Interested in what others think about this. Of course, in my case the micromets may have had more to do with my type of cancer which was IDC with Lobular Features. Studies show that almost 50% of these cancers have spread to the first sentinel node for some unknown reason.

My tumor/nodule/mass is 1.5 cm. I will have the results of my stereostatic biopsy tomorrow. My mom had TNBC dx at age 75. I am 56. Truly hoping I'm not TNBC. My mammo was painful, but nothing compared to the biopsy.Worrying the cancer may be really mean with all this pain. The lump is the size of a pea and looked like a perfect pea on the mammo.

djmammo,

That site you posted is amazing, thank you so much for posting it. I believed my cancer was spread to the lymph nodes through the biopsy, and this is just more evidence. Kinda scary to think though, that the current expected level of care is actually promoting cancer. I hope they continue their study and change the way cancer is treated. People use to think years ago just opening someone up that has cancer would spread it. I remember hearing people saying once air hits the cancer cells it spreads like wildfire, and there is somewhat a bit of truth to that, although, not the air that causes the proliferation, but the dislocation of cells entering the bloodstream and lymph system.

The downside is you must be treated or it spreads anyways. It might have spread even before the biopsy, so if we need a biopsy to be treated currently, then my suggestions is to do everything you can to make sure those tiny cells are not in an environment that is hospitable and allows them to grow. Ketorolac for inflammation and change of diet ( high protien, low carb, no sugar), radiation for the stray cells and chemo for those that escaped.