What was claimed
Cancer is part of the healing response, and tumours are created by the body as a bag to collect toxins contaminating the bloodstream.
Our verdict
A biopsy does not burst a ‘bag’ or release toxins—because tumours are not bags of toxins. Biopsies involve removing a small sample of cells to determine whether they’re cancerous.
What was claimed
Biopsies split open the bags created by the tumours and release toxic matter into the body.
Our verdict
A biopsy does not burst a ‘bag’ or release toxins—because tumours are not bags of toxins. Biopsies involve removing a small sample of cells to determine whether they’re cancerous.
A graphic being shared on social media makes false and potentially harmful claims about tumours being bags of toxins, and biopsies releasing them.
Posts circulating on Facebook and Instagram say, “Cancer is trying to Heal not Kill”, and state that: “A cancerous tumor is basically a bag the human body creates to collect toxins that are contaminating the bloodstream.
“A biopsy only splits open the bag releasing the toxic matter back into the body.”
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The graphic claims that cancer is “trying to heal” and that tumours are designed to “bag” up toxins contaminating the bloodstream.
This is false. Tumours are not protective “bags” the body creates—but are lumps or masses made up of the body’s own cells, which grow too much because of mutations in their DNA. Over time, this uncontrolled growth forms an abnormal mass of tissue in the body. Depending on the type, tumours can either be benign and non-cancerous, or malignant and cancerous.
A cancerous tumour can be made up of millions of cancer cells, and does not serve any healing purpose. In fact, although cancerous tumours can stay in the area they originally developed in, they can also grow and spread into surrounding areas and tissues in a process called “local invasion”.
Biopsies do not release “toxic matter”, because, as explained above, tumours are not bags containing toxins. A biopsy involves taking a small sample of tissue or fluid so that doctors can determine if it is cancerous.
There are multiple types of biopsies, including needle biopsies and surgical biopsies, but in all cases, what’s being collected is cells, not “toxins”.
Biopsies are often the only way to definitively determine whether cells in an area of the body are cancerous or not.
A needle biopsy is a procedure that involves using a needle to collect a small sample of cells for analysis. There is an extremely small chance of needle biopsies causing cancerous cells to spread along the needle’s track, via a process known as ‘seeding’, however, the likelihood depends on the particular cancer, which we detailed in a previous fact check.
Having a biopsy can lead to a better outcome and longer survival from cancer, according to a study by the Mayo Clinic. This is likely due to diagnoses being identified definitively, which allows treatments to be tailored based on the cancer type.
The graphic also makes claims about radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which we have not fact checked here.
Posts making similar claims have been circulating online since at least 2020, and have been debunked many times, but more recent examples from this year have still been shared hundreds of times.
False, misleading or unevidenced claims about cancer can cause harm if people make treatment decisions based on them. Delays in getting effective cancer treatment can have life-threatening results.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because cancerous tumours are not “trying to heal” by forming bags to collect toxins, they are formed when cells grow and divide to make masses, which can either be benign or malignant.
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