Many medical conditions, including all cases of cancer, must be diagnosed by removing a sample of tissue from the patient and sending it to a pathologist for examination. This procedure is called a biopsy. Any organ in the body can be biopsied using a variety of techniques, some of which require major surgery, while others do not even require local anesthesia. After the biopsy specimen is obtained, it is sent for examination to the anatomical pathologist for further analysis.
