Reducing Patient's Stress With Faster Biopsy Results

We've known anecdotally that simply waiting for the results of a tumor biopsy can be as stressful as coping with an unfavorable diagnosis itself. There is even some evidence to suggest that this stressful waiting period may subsequently impact the treatment of those patients who are found to have cancer. How do we explain this hypothesis? Further, how can we ease the anxiety of those patients awaiting cancer test results, and can we shorten the time patients must wait for their diagnosis? Host Dr. Jennifer Shu explores these key issues in the diagnostic process with Dr. Elvira Lang, associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, and an interventional radiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.