Pathologists play a key role in breast health, cancer detection
Welcome to October! Breast Cancer Awareness month continues! We physicians that walk the medical journeys with Permian Basin patients encourage the earnest efforts of the Midland Memorial Hospital Breast Center team and all the advocacy groups in the Permian Basin to get women’s attention in October to assess their breast health.
When I speak of the physicians on your breast team, this includes your surgeon, radiologist, oncologist, and pathologist. There are about 12 of us in Midland that care for patients through the accredited MHM Breast Center program. We all meet several times a month to discuss every patient at the beginning of their breast cancer medical journey. Although you see your surgeon, oncologist, and even radiologist for biopsy and pre-op procedures, you never see me—your pathologist. Pathologists are the beginning of your story, by making the initial diagnosis, and setting in motion your medical journey. Any blood, cells, tissue, or fluid that is taken from you comes to a lab run by a pathologist. Our cell and tissue diagnoses guide your surgeon and oncologist in setting your next management steps. Although you never see us, you are our patient too! I am always striving for accuracy and precision, thinking ahead about how my diagnosis is going to modify your medical journey and impact your life.
Did you know that three of the women physicians on your local breast health team received subspecialty training in breast medicine? Surgeon Dr. Sandeepa Musunuru completed her additional breast surgery fellowship in North Carolina; she is the only fellowship-trained breast surgeon in the Permian Basin. Radiologist Dr. Gina Campagna completed her additional breast imaging fellowship at NYU. After pathology residency I completed a multi-disciplinary breast pathology program in Chicago through the College of American Pathologists. The patient’s whole breast work-up ---your breast history, physical exam, radiology finding, lesion location, and pathology diagnosis---should all fit together and make sense to your team.
Each clinician on the breast team has equations to assess your risk of getting cancer and the risk of having recurrence after various treatments. But the truth is---if you have breast tissue on your body---you are at risk of getting cancer, or getting it again, if you had a lumpectomy. We hear said in sports “the best defense is a good offense”. And that is true in medicine too!
My physician colleagues and I know our proactive offense. Follow our example: After puberty, (1) begin performing monthly breast exams on yourself starting as a teenager; (2) start annual mammograms in your late 30’s; (3) tell every provider you visit the age that any family member was diagnosed with breast cancer; (4) if you change mammogram locations, share the phone numbers and names of the prior breast imaging facilities with the new location, so the new radiologist can acquire your past images for critical comparison. Early, quick diagnoses are your best chance for a successful outcome!
I hope you never have to be my patient on a medical journey. But if you are, know we have cultivated an incredible Permian Basin team that always goes the extra mile beside you, on your journey.