Can a biopsy spread cancer? Top doctor explains what happens

So can a biopsy really spread cancer, if at all you have it? The short answer is yes, but it’s extremely rare. Dr. Sharma explains that a lot of research has been carried out to understand whether there is a possibility of a spread, especially when the sample is taken from organs situated deep within the body, such as the chest and abdomen. “There is no risk for most of the biopsies of common cancers, such as the mouth, breast, cervix, stomach, and colon, which are done through endoscopy,” the surgeon said.

He also elaborated that in rare cases, the risk is somewhere between 1% to 2.5%. “People keep saying that a biopsy will spread the tumour in the whole body or it will become aggressive. That is absolutely false, there is no evidence of that,” he added.