Awaiting biopsy results

Hi Hellsbells44 and a very warm welcome to our corner of the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.

I’m Anne, one of the Community Champions here on the Online Community, and I was diagnosed with melanoma 10 years ago. My results took 6 weeks to come back from biopsy and most people seem to get them between 4-6 weeks.

You are right that there are targets for hospitals to try and meet where cancer diagnoses are concerned. The different UK nations have different targets so you might find this information from Cancer Research useful.

Assuming that you are in England, the targets used to be that you should see a specialist within 2 weeks, often referred to as the two week wait. This has been replaced by a new target called the Faster Diagnosis Standard which aims to get results to you with 28 days of your referral. 

You asked if

Hellsbells44 said:

they had to tell you within a certain amount of time

but the FDS is a target and, in my experience, it really depends how busy the pathology labs are in your area of the country as to how quickly the results come back.

I'll keep everything crossed for a benign result that comes back without too much delay

Thank you so very much.  Lovely to hear you are well.

I was seen under the 2 week for and it was the bit after I'm confused with, so thank you - I suspect it will be a big wait

I went to the Melanoma Patient Conference this year, organised by the Melanoma Focus charity.

One of the speakers was a pathologist who explained the process of diagnosing melanoma in a sample and why it takes so long! Apparently the sample has to go though 100+ processes to be evaluated, and 30-40% of samples require further analysis (I’ve just found the notes I took!)

I know the wait is horrible, but I think it’s helpful to know that it’s long because it’s a complex process. Fingers crossed for you.

Thank you so much for your reply

I am very glad they are thorough but 4-6 weeks is so hard to wait. I never thought I had health anxiety but I'm now questioning every single hiccup and cough convinced it's stage 4.

I know worrying will not get me my results faster or help so I'm just trying as best as I can to stay calm. Luckily for me I'm Christian however I still find myself sneaking on to dr Google far too much!!!!  

Still waiting after 4 weeks tomorrow... need to keep positive but seems a long wait so far

Hi Hellsbells44 

I'm sorry to read that you're still waiting and I know how horrible waiting for results is.

As you were told your results should be back in 4-6 weeks, and it's 4 weeks tomorrow since your biopsy, you could give your skin cancer nurse specialist (SCNS) a call to ask if they're back yet.

Fingers crossed 

I don't have one.  They said if it's diagnosed I will get more info at diagnosis. 

I have managed to speak to someone in the unit ( a secretary ) who said she estimates it's more like 6-8 weeks. I'm just going slowly cross eyed checking the nhs app in hope