Effects of biopsy on lung metastasis

In order to clarify whether biopsy promotes lung metastasis, open or needle aspiration biopsy was performed 10 or 21 days after S-SLM osteosarcoma cel ls were transplanted subcutaneously in Fischer rats. The lungs were excised after six weeks and the lung weight and the number of metastatic nodules w ere measured. The mean weight was more in open than needle biopsy, and the number of nodules was significantly higher in open biopsy after 10 days, co mpared to the control. From these results we concluded that open is more li kely to promote lung metastases compared to needle biopsy under the specifi c experimental conditions of this study.