Interventional radiology.

Direct unencumbered visualization of areas of interest by image intensification combined with more invasive techniques of percutaneous puncture and angiography have extended the scope of the radiologist in the diagnosis and management of patients with neoplastic diseases. Percutaneous biopsies can be obtained more safely and with greater reliability from lesions of the lungs, skeleton, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and retroperitoneal lymph nodes. Intravascular therapy by arterial occlusion of the neoplasm has been employed to control hemorrhage, to decrease tumor mass, and preoperatively to facilitate surgical removal. The possibility of initiating an immune response to the ischemic neoplasm is also discussed.