Biopsy procedure worries

HB asked about the risk of cancer seeding from biopsies.

The URL he pointed to (see below) addresses local extension as a result of

tumor tracking along the path caused by the biopsy. I look at this as a

different (albeit somewhat troubling) problem from that of tumor seeding,

in which malignant cells are released into the bloodstream and wind up as

seeds for metastatic tumor deposits.. When reading the contents of that

site, please keep in mind that biopsies performed before 1985 were

routinely done with a much thicker needle (guage 14 vs today's guage 18),

which created more trauma and created a larger needle "track."

I can't completely discount the possible adverse affect of biopsy on the

natural history of PCa. Medicine ain't particle physics, but could a

perverse Heisenberg principle be operating behind the scenes? Gives me

shivers just contemplating the thought!

(For those of you not paying attention in Physics class, or for those of

you on CHT(?), the Heisenberg principle relates that just by watching

something, we change what is being watched).

Regards,

JR Oppenheimer