Repost from @chrisbeatcancer:
Do biopsies spread cancer? What has been your experience?
In 2004 at the John Wayne Cancer Center, they did a study on women with aggressive breast tumors.
One group had needle biopsy and then surgery a few weeks later. The other group did not have the biopsy, they just had the surgery to remove the lump. The group that had the biopsy first had a 50% increase in malignancy, that means the cancer spreading after surgery.
So, just that tiny needle biopsy caused what they call “seeding,” which is where you poke a tumor; cancer cells spill out and they spread around in the surrounding tissues and that can cause the tumor to spread.
Because when they come to take the tumor out, they're taking the tumor, but they're not taking out the cells that spread after the biopsy.
Now, the same thing can happen with a major surgery. Your body's response to heal that surgery is actually like cancer fuel, because your body secretes all these growth hormones to heal itself after a major surgery and those growth hormones are cancer cell fuel.
So on one hand, surgery can be beneficial because you're removing a tumor and getting a big bulk of cancer cells out of your body. But on the other hand, it can also cause the cancer to spread.
Study link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15197090/
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