During an endoscopic biopsy, a thin, flexible tube called an endoscope is used to look inside your body. It has a light at the end to help see clearly. Your doctor can insert the endoscope through your mouth, rectum, urinary tract, or a small cut in your skin.

Special tools can be passed through the endoscope to take a tiny piece of tissue for analysis. The type of endoscopic biopsy you have depends on where the suspicious area is found. For example, if it’s in your bladder, you might have a cystoscopy. If it’s in your lung, a bronchoscopy might be done. And for issues in your colon, a colonoscopy is used.