Cancer and Blood Care

What is a Bone Marrow Biopsy?

A bone marrow biopsy is a procedure that takes a small sample of the marrow inside your bones for testing in a laboratory. This test is used to see if you have an infection, disease, or other problem in your bone marrow.

Bone marrow is the spongy tissue found inside your bones. In the larger bones— such as your spine, breastbone, hips, ribs, legs, or skull—bone marrow contains cells that produce white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Your white blood cells help fight infection, your red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients, and your platelets enable the blood to clot.

Marrow has both solid and liquid parts. If the solid portion of the bone is sampled, this is called a biopsy. Aspiration is the procedure used to collect the liquid part of the marrow.

This will look at cell lines that are effected and genetics…this will determine what we are dealing with the extent of the situation.