PROCEDURES & TREATMENTS

Breast Cancer Risk Assessment, Risk Reduction Counseling

Breast cancer risk is different for each individual a breast surgeon can help you understand your risk of breast cancer and interventions that can be done to reduce your risk of breast cancer.

Infections and Pain

Breast infections are common. Management of breast infections can be surgical if antibiotic therapy has not resolved the infection. There is a rare type of breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer that an individual with an unresolved breast infection may need to be evaluated for as the cause of the breast skin changes.

Breast pain is a frustrating problem. Breast pain is typically musculoskeletal pain that is interpreted as tenderness in the breast. Classically, breast pain does not represent cancer. We will evaluate the breast pain to help identify the cause and improve the pain with conservative measures.

Skin Problems

Breast skin changes may require biopsy. We can evaluate the breast skin changes to determine and treat the cause of the skin changes on the breast.

Hidden Scar Surgery

Hidden Scar Surgery is a certification for surgeons that have completed a training course and incorporate the hidden scar into their management of breast cancer. The goal of hidden scar surgery is to treat the cancer as cosmetically as possible. More About Hidden Scar

Mastectomy

A mastectomy is the removal of the breast, it can be performed with or without reconstruction.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy and axillary lymph node dissection

The sentinel lymph nodes are the first lymph nodes draining the breast. The lymph nodes are a network and not necessary organized like a string of pearls. The surgeon’s task is to identify the lymph nodes draining the breast to evaluate for spread of cancer to the lymph nodes. If cancer is in the lymph nodes, generally a lymph node dissection is performed. A lymph node dissection is removal of axillary tissue in an anatomic area to evaluate for how many lymph nodes are involved with the cancer. This information is important to determining the stage of the breast cancer and to help the other treating physicians, the medical oncologist and the radiation oncologist to plan the adjuvant breast cancer treatment, radiation and chemotherapy.

Partial breast radiation catheter

Some individuals with early breast cancer are candidates for radiation therapy to the portion of the breast where the cancer was located. The partial breast radiation catheters can be placed in the breast with ultrasound guidance for people that are appropriate candidates.

Oncoplastic surgery

Oncoplastic surgery combines plastic surgery techniques with cancer removal surgical techniques to provide the breast cancer patient with the optimal cosmetic outcome.

Breast cancer in women

200,000 breast cancers are diagnosed in women in the United States annually. We help the patient identify and perform the surgical treatment of breast cancer. Breast cancer is treated with the multidisciplinary team. The multidisciplinary team includes physicians from radiology, pathology, medical oncology, radiation oncology, surgery, and plastic surgery.

Breast cancer in men

1% of breast cancers occur in men, we recognize and treat male breast cancer and treat male breast cancer with a multidisciplinary team. Male breast cancer can be associated with the BRCA2 gene for breast cancer.

Breast Biopsies

Breast biopsies are performed by the radiologist using image guidance, stereotactic biopsies with mammography, ultrasound guided and MRI guided biopsies. If the area in the breast can not be accessed by the radiologist then the surgeon can remove the area of concern in the breast usually utilizing a marker placed by radiology. Sometimes individuals will have biopsies performed by radiology and the results do not agree with the interpretation of the lesion on the imaging and a surgical biopsy is performed to further evaluate that area. The patient can also have abnormal cells seen on core needle biopsy and an excisional biopsy is performed to remove the area to rule out an associated cancer with the abnormal cells.