>When a biopsy report comes back saying "...locally invasive" Locally invasive means that the tumor tends to grow into the surrounding tissue. This is evidence of a low-grade malignancy. Benign tumors tend to expand, compressing adjacent tissues, but not fingering into them. At surgery, benign tumors are easily removed. It doesn't say anything about the possibility of metastasis, or spread via the blood or lymph to distant organs. The chance of recurrence is not really addressed by the term locally invasive. The chance of recurrence is largely based on the adequacy of excision, i.e., how clean the margins of the biopsy are. With kindest regards, Bruce H. Williams, DVM, DACVP Join the Ferret Health List at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list [Posted in FML issue 3440]