About an hour and a quarter

In the air to LAX One visit covers the consultation, the fine needle aspiration and the reading.

Same day

Biopsy, slides read, consultation

Results in 24 hours

Before most patients fly home

One visit

No second trip

Getting here

Fly it, or make a day of the drive.

Palo Alto is outside comfortable day trip driving for most people. The flight to LAX is about an hour and a quarter, which turns the whole thing into a single day, and the appointment is built so you leave with the answer already in motion.

By air, the usual choice

  • San Jose (SJC) or San Francisco (SFO). Service into LAX, and the flight itself is about an hour and a quarter.
  • Book a mid morning appointment. An early flight down leaves plenty of margin.
  • About an hour in the office. Ultrasound, biopsy, staining and the consultation.
  • Home the same evening. Preliminary findings usually reach you within 24 hours.

By road, if you prefer

  • Roughly about 350 miles. Five and a half to six hours each way on the I-5 south.
  • Worth an overnight. Most driving patients come the day before rather than doing it in one push.
  • The same single appointment. The visit does not get longer because you drove.
  • One trip either way. There is no follow up visit to hear the result.

Either way it is one trip. The reason patients travel for this is that the person taking the sample is the person reading it, so the answer does not wait on a laboratory somewhere else.

Fine needle aspiration in Palo Alto

Three questions a needle can answer.

It is a twenty minute procedure with local anesthesia and no incision. What makes it worth travelling for is not the needle, it is who reads what comes out of it.

Thyroid

Thyroid nodule biopsy

Only 4 to 6 percent of thyroid nodules turn out to be cancer. Ultrasound guided sampling, graded on the Bethesda system, read on site. Thyroid biopsy

Breast

Breast lump biopsy

Most breast lumps are benign. If it is a cyst, draining it with the same needle often makes the lump disappear during the visit. Breast biopsy

Lymph nodes

Lymph node biopsy

Usually a node is simply doing its job. When it is hard, fixed, or has not gone away, cells answer the question in one appointment. Lymph node biopsy

Celina-M-Nadelman-MD
Why it is worth the trip

The person holding the needle is the person reading the cells.

In almost every other setting those are two different people, and the handoff between them is where the two weeks go. That handoff is the reason patients travel from Palo Alto for a test that takes twenty minutes. Dr. Nadelman is one of very few physicians in the United States who is board certified in cytopathology and practices as a fine needle aspiration specialist. She performs the biopsy and she interprets it.

  • Head of the FNA Clinic for Los Angeles County at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center
  • Clinical instructor, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
  • Co-Director of Pathology, Charles R. Drew University
  • Residency and fellowship at UCLA. M.D., Keck School of Medicine of USC
The day itself

About an hour in the office.

Built so a patient who flew in that morning can be back at the airport in the afternoon with the diagnostic work already done.

01

Consultation and ultrasound

Dr. Nadelman examines the lump and looks at it on ultrasound first. Bring any imaging you already have.

02

The aspiration

Local anesthesia, then a few passes with a fine needle. There is nothing to stitch.

03

Read on site

The slides are stained and examined in the office lab while you wait. If the sample is thin she takes another there and then.

04

Fly home

Preliminary findings usually within 24 hours, sent to you and to whichever physician you name in Palo Alto.

Palo Alto questions

The practical questions.

How do most Palo Alto patients get to the office?

Most fly. San Jose (SJC) or San Francisco (SFO) connects to LAX and the flight is about an hour and a quarter, which makes the appointment a single day. Driving is about 350 miles on the I-5 south, roughly five and a half to six hours each way, so patients who drive usually come the day before.

She performs house call FNA biopsies anywhere in California, bringing the ultrasound and the staining setup with her. It is the usual answer for a homebound or immobile patient.

Any imaging you already have, such as an ultrasound, mammogram or CT report, plus the name of the physician you want the report sent to. Prior imaging helps Dr. Nadelman target the sample before the needle goes anywhere.

Less than most people expect. The needle is thinner than the one used for a blood draw, the area is numbed first, and there is no incision, so there is nothing to stitch and nothing to heal.

Worth reading before you drive up. FNA biopsy in Los Angeles, step by step, the insurance the office accepts, and the questions patients ask most. She also samples salivary gland, soft tissue and other lumps, bumps and nodules.

Near Palo Alto. She also sees patients from Carmel, San Luis Obispo and Visalia. Or see every area she covers.

The trip is shorter than the wait.

Next-day appointments are usually available, and house calls are available anywhere in California.

310.702.6701

1125 S. Beverly Drive, Suite 602
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Monday to Friday, 10 to 6

What patients say

4.9 stars across Google and Yelp

Reviews from people who came in with a lump and left with an answer. Video testimonials and letters from referring physicians are on the testimonials page.

CELINA NADELMAN, M.D.

  • Biopsy and interpretation by a Board Certified Cytopathologist

  • Ultrasound-guided and palpation-guided FNAs

  • Preliminary diagnosis within 24 hours in most cases

  • Next day appointments available

  • We accept most major PPO insurances and Medicare.

  • Patient and physician time savings

  • Relief of patient anxiety

  • Medical, technical and fiscal resource conservation

  • Appropriate and expeditious triage of the patient and their sample

  • Diagnostic ultrasound services

WE ARE HERE TO HELP

Request an appointment with The Cancer Biopsy Doctor, Celina M. Nadelman, M.D. today.

Did you know we do house calls in the state of California? We can travel to you anywhere in California! Speak to our office about the details.