Do bone marrow aspirations mean leukemia?

No.: Blood cells are made in the bone marrow. An aspiration (and biopsy) is usually done to understand why there is a blood cell problem, or to stage a known cancer that can involve the marrow. Both benign conditions and malignancies can be diagnosed by this simple procedure.

No: We do them for several reasons including evaluation for an abnormal cbc. Sometimes we are concerned about leukemia but the other reasons include the following: anemia, low platelets, staging of lymphoma, monitoring therapy. Hope this helps.