Cancer by needlestick injury?

[biomedstudent194]

I am a final year student who has done a lab based project, during this project I was using prostate cell lines when I got a needlestick injury. At the time for some reason I dismissed it and didn't report the incident. Months later I have found a bump on my finger, I can't rememeber where the injury occured, if its on the same finger or even if I had used the needle before the injury. Currently I am treating it with wart treatment as bump was tiny and as far as i can tell it has gone. Do you think it is possible it maybe the cancer cells and how serious is this?

[DrOHS]

Hello,

I can understand your worrying concern about the needle-stick injury and exposure to cancer cell lines. First, I would like to assure you that it is quite unlikely that someone gets cancer by this route or injury. Cancer cells originate within body by some internal derangement influenced by either external or internal factors. External factors like needle-stick injury does not influence any metastatic or cancerous growth. The bump raised could be a infective space or small hematoma that will subside by the time. However, I will always encourage you to consult a doctor for a physical examination and appropriate treatment of bump.

Hope this helps.

[Philip D Parks, MD, MPH, MOccH, FACOEM]

The description in your original posting it appears that you are uncertain as to the location of the needlestick. So, it is not possible to definitively answer your question. To my knowledge, there are no case reports of malignancies directly and causally related to needlesticks.

~•~ Dr. Parks

This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice. The information presented in this posting is for patients’ education only. As always, I encourage you to see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.

[biomedstudent194]

The two cell lines I was working with were Du145 and LNCaP, both are metastasising adenocarcinoma cell lines.

[Philip D Parks, MD, MPH, MOccH, FACOEM]

Hello,

Based on the details that you shared in your posting, it is highly unlikely that the "bump" on your finger is related to a needlestick.

What type of prostate cells were you working with? Were the cells an oncogenic cell line?

~•~ Dr. Parks

This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice. The information presented in this posting is for patients’ education only. As always, I encourage you to see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.