Question

Explain what it means to biopsy tissue & list one characteristic that a doctor would look for to determine if the sample contains cancer.

Answer 1

Whenever the doctor is not sure of the diagnosis or whenever the diagnosis by clinical examination becomes difficult, then the doctor orders for the tissue biopsy to look for any pathological changes.

It is mostly done for cancers, autoimmune diseases, skin diseases and chronic infections.

If we suspect that the tissue might be having cancer, we look for mitotic figures (cell nuclei at various stages of mitosis), nuclear shape (enlarged), Nucleus cytoplasm ratio (which is decreased), loss of polarity (cells lose their designated polarity), etc...,

Hope this helps... Thank you!!!