Meet the Experts

Dr. Starr Mautner

Breast Surgeon with Miami Cancer Institute

Videos

Mammogram: Breast Cancer Detection

Dr. Starr Mautner, Breast Surgeon with Miami Cancer Institute, explains a mammogram is a black and white X-ray of the breast tissue in compression. The radiologist will compress the breast from top to bottom and side to side to compare and make sure there are no changes with previous mammograms. She also says they will be looking at the anatomy of the breasts, they will be looking for symmetry between the left breast and the right breast.

Breast Biopsy: Uses & Procedure

If a patient has a mammogram or ultrasound with a mask, or she has a palpable mass a biopsy is mandatory. Dr. Starr Mautner, Breast Surgeon with Miami Cancer Institute, explains tissue diagnosis is the only way to know for sure if the lesion is benign. She also describes the most common way to diagnose a breast cancer. Nowadays, physicians take a small piece of tissue out of the lesion and have the pathologist look at it on the microscope to give them a diagnosis.

Breast Cancer: Mastectomy

Dr. Starr Mautner, Breast Surgeon with Miami Cancer Institute, says mastectomy involves removing the entire breast, and that can be done with immediate reconstruction and it is usually done in coordination with a plastic surgeon to do the reconstruction at the same time. She points out that even the best reconstruction will never look exactly like the native breast that the patient had beforehand. She also highlights the recovery takes longer than a lumpectomy and it involves an overnight stay in the hospital.

Breast Cancer: Biopsy after Screening

Dr. Starr Mautner, Breast Surgeon with Miami Cancer Institute, explains if there is an abnormality on a mammogram or a breast ultrasound, the radiologist will recommend a biopsy. "When they read the mammograms they give it a scoring system, and anything that is four or five means it is suspicious or very suspicious for cancer and that triggers a biopsy." She says a biopsy is performed with a small needle inserted into the breast at the site of the abnormality for taking a tissue sample to be seen for a pathologist can make a diagnosis of breast cancer.

Breast Cancer: New Treatments

Dr. Starr Mautner, Breast Surgeon with Miami Cancer Institute, says there are new treatments for breast cancer. "It seems that almost on an annual basis we're learning more and more about the treatment of breast cancer, and really it's moving in a direction that's becoming more and more personalized." Some of the treatments are radiation therapy, chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, and surgery, which could be lumpectomy or mastectomy. She explains proton beam radiation is a new type of radiation to target the tissue and avoid scatter effect to the heart in lungs.

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