St. Elizabeth Breast Center: Latest Treatment Options
A Team Approach to Your Breast Cancer Journey
At St. Elizabeth Healthcare, we provide personalized, comprehensive breast cancer care in our National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC)-accredited breast center.
Our multi-disciplinary team works together to provide the highest level of services for our patients. From imaging to diagnostics, surgery, treatment and beyond, the St. Elizabeth Breast Center proudly upholds the NAPBC standards.
“Each patient’s care is developed and coordinated through our multi-disciplinary panel of specialists who are specifically focused on treating breast cancer,” says Terri Bogan, Nurse Manager of the St. Elizabeth Women’s Wellness Centers. “We all work together to ensure each patient is getting a treatment plan tailored specifically for them.”
When you are a patient at the St. Elizabeth Breast Center, rest assured that your team is continually working on your case. The specialists on the multi-disciplinary panel include physicians, breast surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, genetic counselors, physical therapists, nurse navigators, research nurses, social workers and dietitians. Some team members are behind the scenes and some will become familiar faces – but we’re all working towards the same goal: giving our patients the highest quality breast cancer care.
A Leader in Breast Cancer Care and Technology
Being a NAPBC-certified Breast Center also means offering our patients the latest in breast cancer technology. In the summer of 2018, the St. Elizabeth Breast Center began using the SAVI SCOUT ® Radar Breast Localization System, which uses a tiny radar reflector about the size of a grain of rice to locate the exact spot of the tumor in the breast.
This new technology helps to streamline the lumpectomy breast surgery, breaking it into two more manageable procedures. Previously, surgeons would mark the location of the tumor with a wire, and the patient would need to wait for the surgery with the wire protruding out of the chest.
Luckily, with the new SCOUT® technology, St. Elizabeth offers our patients a more comfortable and targeted lumpectomy option.
Using advanced imaging, the tiny radar reflector is inserted into the breast at the exact spot where the surgeon needs to make the incision. This is done as an outpatient procedure and afterward, the patient will feel little to no discomfort and can go home and resume daily activities.
On the day of the breast surgery, the surgeon will use the SCOUT® probe with a radar detector. The system emits 500 million pulses per second and gives the surgeon a 360-degree view, providing the surgical team with real-time measurements and the best path to the tumor.
Having the exact location pinpointed helps the surgeons to make a perfectly targeted incision without removing unnecessary breast tissue, helping to speed up the recovery process and lead to better cosmetic results.
“This is amazing technology that we’re proud to offer our breast cancer patients,” says Terri. “Patients are reporting less surgery-day anxiety – and oftentimes, heal more quickly with a more targeted incision.”
The radar reflector comes out during surgery and it is sent to pathology along with the breast biopsy. It’s just one more way the St. Elizabeth Breast Center provides our patients with the best possible care and outcomes.
If you would like to learn more about the St. Elizabeth Breast Center, please call (859) 301-6257 to make an appointment at the Edgewood location or (859) 572-2300 to make an appointment at Fort Thomas location. We offer imaging at all four Breast Center locations in Edgewood, Fort Thomas, Florence and Covington and comprehensive care at the Edgewood and Fort Thomas locations.
