Es posible que su médico le recomiende una biopsia si cree que usted puede tener cáncer. En una biopsia, un médico extrae una pequeña cantidad de tejido del área del cuerpo donde puede haber cáncer. El tejido se envía a un laboratorio y un especialista llamado patólogo lo examina bajo un microscopio para detectar células cancerosas. Otras pruebas pueden sugerir que el cáncer se encuentra en el cuerpo, pero solo una biopsia puede probar si hay células cancerosas.
Your doctor may recommend a biopsy if they think you might have cancer. In a biopsy, a doctor takes a small amount of tissue from the area of the body where cancer may be present. The tissue is sent to a laboratory and examined under a microscope for cancer cells by a specialist called a pathologist. Other tests can suggest that cancer is in the body, but only a biopsy can test to show whether there are cancer cells.
The type of biopsy you have depends on where the possible cancer is located.
ON THIS PAGE: You will find a list of common tests, procedures, and scans that doctors use to find the cause of a medical problem. Use the menu to see other pages.
Doctors use many tests to find, or diagnose, cancer. They also do tests to learn if cancer has spread to another part of the body from where it started. If the cancer has spread, it is called metastasis. Doctors may also do tests to learn which treatments could work best.
