Image-Guided Biopsy of Bone Tumors

The procedure correctly identified tumors as malignant or benign in all but two cases, for a 98% accuracy rate, also the same as for surgical biopsy. Complications were limited to a single small blood clot at the biopsy site. No blood vessels or nerves were injured.

Open surgical biopsy requires a general anesthetic and an incision that can take up to 10 days to heal and leaves a two-to-five inch scar. No tumor therapy is recommended for two weeks. In contrast, needle biopsy can be performed immediately in the outpatient department. Instead of anesthesia, the patient receives a combination of intravenous sedation and local anesthetic. The procedure takes less than an hour and the anesthesia wears off within two hours. Specimens may be taken from different parts of the tumor. Also, because it is less invasive, treatment can begin immediately. In addition, needle biopsy can be three times more cost effective.

"The single most outstanding attribute of this method is that a patient can have a biopsy the same day he or she sees the orthopedic oncologist about a tumor,” said James S. Jelinek, M.D., of the Washington Cancer Institute at Washington Hospital Center (DC, USA; www.whcenter.org) and lead author. The study was published in the June 2002 issue of Radiology.




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