Breast Biopsies: Needle vs Surgery

There has been a debate for many years over whether needle breast biopsies are safer than surgical biopsies.  Many people believe needle biopsies are less invasive and surgery is not really necessary and just another way for surgeons to make more money.  Needle biopsies a far less expensive and can be done by a radiologist.  There was a medical article published in 2004 that stated that doing a needle biopsy can cause cancer cells to break loose and then be carried throughout the body and could then settle on the lymph nodes.  This was later shown to be inaccurate. There is much more risk with surgery.  Besides being an invasive procedure, surgery puts you at risk for infection and can take you much longer to heal.