What is a "lumbar puncture" or "spinal tap"?

What is a "lumbar puncture" or "spinal tap"?

You might ask why we woud do spinal taps and or lumbar punctures in patients diagnosed with lymphoma and the reason for that is: Some certain types of lymphomas, some particular types as well as some very aggressive lymphomas and lymphomas that involve the bone marrow have a high predilection for relapse or disease spread to the spinal cord and to the lining of the brain. In those certain situations we in addition to giving chemotherapy in the vein and esostemic chemotherapy or chemotherapy as we all know and understand it: we give chemotherapy into the spinal cord or column to bathe the cerebal spinal fluid with chemotherapy to prevent cancer from growing in the spinal fluid and the lining of the brain.