my sister had a tongue biopsy 2 weeks ago?

Question

we were a bit worried because weve got a history of throat cancer in my family,shes got to wait 2 weeks for result ,is this a good sign?because some people say they would tell you in a week if this was cancer!

Answer 1

The reason it is taking two weeks to get an answer is the Dr probably had to send the tissue sample out to a pathologist. Frequently because of insurance and clinic contracts the pathologist is often not the closest pathologist in town but is whatever pathologist the Dr or clinic has a prior contract with. Also, when they say two weeks this really means ten working days. You can always call the Dr's nurse to check and see if the results are back and that way you do not also have to wait for the Dr to dictate a response letter to you.

I hope things go ok for your sister. I hope she was not a smoker. If so, help her quit.

Tongue cancer is something you don't want to mess around with so if results are bad then seek aggressive treatment immediately. Treatment is usually surgery along with possible radiation therapy. Here is a good web page discussing tongue cancer.

http://www.tonguecancer.com/tongue_cancer.htm

All the best to your sister.

Answer 2

Biopsies which come back as malignant are called to the patients right away. Although the clinic in the area where I live has such a bad track record, they could have lost the result or just never even looked at it.
You sis needs to call the doctor and make him give her a result. 2 weeks is just plain negligence. She needs a result sooner than 2 weeks. There is no harm in calling the physicians nurse to find out if the test has been resulted and ask for a call from the MD
I am a cancer RN and 2 weeks is just too long to wait. She should not be expected to sit around and worry all this time.

Answer 3

I don't know if you can read much into that. It might just be that the pathologists are short-staffed or that they had to send the specimen to another lab to be analyzed. I'm sure it is hard to wait that long, but hopefully you will get good news in the end.