hello, my father is 72 yrs old and has smoked for 53yrs of his life, he quit in october 2013. he has been diagnosed with COPD, emphysema and have been told that his lungs are at a 17% capacity, and in Feb. had a CT of the chest that found a nodule 1.4 x 1.7 cm. in 3 months the nodule has grown to 1.5 x 1.9 cm, and they are guessing it s cancer however want to biopsy to confirm type and stage. My question is, how safe is doing the needle biopsy?