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Dr. Lebovic explains what a minimally invasive breast biopsy is.
Dr. Lebovic:
As a breast surgeon, I've been fortunate enough to see all the wonderful changes that we’ve had in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment over the last 17 years or so. One of those is the change in biopsy techniques. Again, as a surgeon we use to just open the breast, make an incision, and then take out the abnormality that we saw on a mammogram, but we no longer have to do that. We can now target a specific area on the mammogram and go in with a small needle, get a small piece of tissue rather than taking out a large area and then send it for examination and the reason that’s important is because most of the time those biopsies are not cancer. So, this helps us avoid making a scar on the breast and sometimes we avoid making a dent in the breast as well. So, it’s much-much better and minimally invasive biopsy is really the technique we use today.
About Dr. Gail Lebovic, M.D., M.A., F.A.C.S.:
Dr. Gail Lebovic is the President of the American Society of Breast Disease (ASBD). She earned a B.A. in physiology and anatomy and a master's in endocrinology from University of California, Berkeley. In 1986, she received her medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine. After an internship at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, she performed her surgical residency at Stanford University Medical Center and completed two fellowships – one in cosmetic and reconstructive surgery of the breast and another at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Lebovic is certified by the American Board of Surgery and her areas of special medical interest include diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, cosmetic and reconstructive surgery of the breast, and management of congenital breast deformities. She has also invented several medical devices and co-founded a number of companies in the area of women's health including Biolucent, Inc., makers of the MammoPad™ breast cushion designed to make mammography more comfortable.
Visit Dr. Lebovic at the American Society of Breast Disease