A history of aspiration biopsy with special attention to prostate biopsy

The history of needle biopsy is outlined from the early 19th century when the first use of needles for biopsy was recorded. The development of aspiration biopsy, largely at Memorial Hospital in New York in the 1930s, followed by its virtual disappearance in the 1940s and 1950s, and its reemergence in the 1960s, is traced. Special attention is given to the history of aspiration biopsy of the prostate from its origins up to the present day.