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Stanford Health Care

Risks of Breast Biopsy

Our Approach to Breast Imaging and Biopsy

The Stanford Breast Imaging and Biopsy team provides you with outstanding screening, diagnostic, surgical, and support services. As an American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Center of Excellence, our experts focus primarily on breast health, and cancerous and noncancerous breast disease, including breast cancer in women and men. We use the most advanced technology and give you the subspecialty expertise of Stanford's world-renowned Department of Radiology.

Our team performs about 10,000 screening and diagnostic mammograms for breast cancer annually and sees hundreds of patients who are already diagnosed and transferring their care to Stanford. Stanford offers medical and surgical oncology, radiation therapy, breast reconstruction, surviviorship care, and access to clinical trials in a compassionate, patient-centered environment.

WHAT WE OFFER YOU FOR BREAST IMAGING & BIOPSIES

  • Breast cancer screening and detection expertise that comes from our exclusive focus on breast cancer and diagnostic experience.
  • Fewer tests and greater accuracy with techniques and expertise that ensure we correctly interpret your results to identify the best treatment plan for you.
  • Leaders in imaging innovation, including doctors who are renowned for developing new uses of MRI, digital mammography, and tomosynthesis.
  • Access to the latest imaging technology, including the latest MRI models, digital mammography, and ultrasound technology.
  • Integrated, collaborative care where we work weekly with your chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation doctors, when appropriate, to create your customized treatment plan.
  • Convenient locations and hours, providing high quality, advanced imaging services with evening and weekend hours for your busy schedule.

What Is Breast Imaging & Biopsy?

Risks of Breast Biopsy

During and after the biopsy procedure, you may have mild pain, bruising, and bleeding at the biopsy site. Occasionally these complications are significant. Severe bleeding rarely occurs and may need treatment with a surgical procedure.

Other risks of image-guided biopsy may include:

  • Neck pain during a stereotactic procedure
  • Arm pain during an ultrasound procedure
  • Rare occurrence of a post-biopsy breast infection, which antibiotics can treat

On occasion, we may not be able to make a definitive diagnosis due to insufficient material, and you may need a surgical biopsy or repeat needle biopsy. Even when we remove what we consider to be sufficient material, any needle or surgical biopsy can miss cancer. You may need follow-up breast imaging at 12 months following biopsy.

If you have an implant in the breast being biopsied, there is a small risk that the compression, needle, surgical biopsy, or post-biopsy metal marker could damage the implant. The companies manufacturing the metal markers have not studied their use in patients with implants, and, thus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved the markers for that use. This is called an off-label use of the markers. To the best of our knowledge, there are no known harmful effects of the markers in patients with breast implants.

Our Clinics

Imaging Clinic (Radiology)
Utilizing state-of-the-art technology Stanford Medicine Imaging maintains the highest standards of clinical excellence in a caring environment.
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RELATED CLINICS

For a full list of diagnostic and imaging clinics, visit our clinic directory.