About six hours

In the air to LAX The fine needle aspiration is done and read in the same office, in one appointment.

Same day

Biopsy, slides read, consultation

Results in 24 hours

Before most patients fly home

One visit

No second trip

Getting here

A day trip, if you want it to be.

New York is outside comfortable day trip driving for most people. The flight to LAX is about six hours, 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

  • JFK, LaGuardia or Newark. Service into LAX, and the flight itself is about six hours.
  • 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.

What to bring

  • Your imaging. Any ultrasound, mammogram or CT report you already have.
  • Your physician’s details. The report goes to whoever you name, wherever they are.
  • Nothing else. No fasting, no preparation, no sedation to arrange.
  • A return flight the same evening. There is no incision, so there is nothing to stop you flying.

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 New York

What New York patients are usually sent for.

The needle is thinner than the one used for a blood draw. There is nothing to stitch afterwards and nothing to heal, and most patients go straight back to their day.

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 New York 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 New York.

New York questions

What patients ask first.

How do most New York patients get to the office?

Most fly. JFK, LaGuardia or Newark connects to LAX and the flight is about six hours, which makes the appointment a single day.

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.

She takes another one in the same visit. The slides are examined in the office while you are still there, so a short sample is caught in minutes rather than discovered by an outside lab two weeks later. That is the single biggest reason it is worth making the trip once rather than twice.

Worth reading before you drive up. her fine needle aspiration practice in Los Angeles, 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 New York. She also sees patients from Beverly Hills, Miami and Las Vegas. Or see every area she covers.

One appointment, one specialist, one answer.

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.