Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
— -- My name's Anne Rosenberg and I'm a dedicated breast surgeon at Jefferson Hospital with the Kimmel Cancer Center.
I've been doing dedicated breast surgery for approximately 20 years and over that time we've noticed very dramatic changes in the whole management of breast disease starting from diagnostics all the way through therapeutics.
The diagnostic advances have seen much more use of ultrasound, MRI, and a new technique called breast specific gamma imaging.
This is a test that's new in this area, new all over the country and we're enrolling patients in different studies related to that as well as MRI studies to look at the role of MRI in treating breast disease. These are active studies both locally and on a national basis.
With relationship to treatment of breast cancer there have been incredible advances not only with the surgery but also with radiation therapy and medical oncology.
With radiation therapy here at Jefferson, we do participate in different trials related to partial breast radiation, focused breast radiation -- which would hopefully limit any injury to the rest of the breast tissue.
We also participate with national trials related to breast medical oncology, meaning the use of different drugs, both for treatment of local disease, metastatic disease, and also what we call chemoprevention.
These trials are very, very important and here at Jefferson, which is a cancer center, we struggle with trying to get patients to participate in clinical trials.
I say struggle, because a lot of women are very resistant and very concerned. But we've been very successful in having women understand what's involved in a clinical trial, the merits of it, and how it helps us answer the questions we're asking related to breast cancer treatment -- he success and what's going to be helpful for women in the future.
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