Stereotactic biopsy

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Stereotactic biopsy, also known as stereotactic core biopsy, is a biopsy procedure that uses a computer and imaging performed in at least two planes to localize a target lesion (such as a tumor or microcalcifications in the breast) in three-dimensional space and guide the removal of tissue for examination by a pathologist under a microscope. Stereotactic core biopsy makes use of the underlying principle of parallax to determine the depth or "Z-dimension" of the target lesion.

Stereotactic core biopsy is extensively used by radiologists specializing in breast imaging to obtain tissue samples containing microcalcifications, which can be an early sign of breast cancer.

[edit] External links

• Stereotactic biopsy entry in the public domain NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms

This article includes text from the U.S. National Cancer Institute's public domain Dictionary of Cancer Terms