The Division of Breast and Oncologic Surgery is responsible for the care of patients with breast disease, both benign and malignant, as well as the care of patients with cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, soft tissue, and skin.
Breast Surgery
Our multidisciplinary breast surgery service is the first of its kind in Suffolk County, providing a full range of care from initial evaluation and prompt diagnosis to complex treatment regimens:
- Early detection and diagnosis
- Comprehensive management of breast cancer and benign breast disease
- Access to national research programs
- Reconstructive and plastic surgery
- Surveillance care for high-risk women
- Patient education
Our team approach to breast cancer treatment distinguishes the quality of care we provide at Stony Brook's Carol M. Baldwin Breast Care Center, which in 2012 was granted a full three-year accreditation by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC), and in 2009 was the first in New York State to gain this quality-assurance designation.
Our weekly Treatment Planning Conference is a multidisciplinary forum where we review potential treatment options for patients with newly diagnosed cancer or patients with recurrent disease. At this conference, their individual cases are presented to a team of highly trained cancer specialists, including radiologists, breast surgeons, pathologists, reconstructive surgeons, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists.
At the Breast Care Center, which is located in the Stony Brook Cancer Center, state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), mammography, and ultrasound equipment are used for routine screening and for early detection of breast cancer.
The most modern techniques of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation oncology are available, as well as rehabilitative and support services, including support groups, designed to assist women who have had treatment for primary cancer of the breast.
See video interview with Dr. Brian J. O'Hea, chief of breast surgery and director of the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Care Center, talking about our service and the achievement of our NAPBC accreditation.
Visit our Patient Care section for more information about our breast surgery service.
Melanoma and Sarcoma Surgery
Our surgical oncologist and her multidisciplinary teams provide care for patients with cancers or potential cancers of the skin and soft tissue. As team leader, she directs the preoperative evaluation, definitive operative treatment, and long-term postoperative care of patients. Clinical expertise includes:
- Management of melanoma (including surgery and minimally invasive limb infusion for recurrent melanoma limited to an extremity) and sarcoma
- Heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for advanced abdominal cancers
- Gastrointestinal surgery
- Treating advanced malignancies
- Palliative surgery
Our surgical oncologist specializes in the treatment of melanoma, sarcoma, and locally advanced abdominal tumors. Stony Brook University Hospital is the only hospital in Suffolk County to offer HIPEC for abdominal tumors, and limb infusion for melanoma.
Using a fully integrated multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of cancer, our surgical oncologist works closely with Stony Brook's radiologists, pathologists, medical oncologists, dermatologic oncologists, and radiation oncologists.
The two patient care teams affiliated with our melanoma and sarcoma surgery service — the melanoma team and the sarcoma tream — involve physicians who provide direct diagnostic and therapeutic care, surgery nurse specialists, and ancillary support staff who ensure that patients achieve the maximum benefit from their therapies.
Our participation in national clinical trials allows us to use the latest in therapeutic advances for the care of different cancers, and this gives our patients the only opportunity available in Suffolk County to benefit from such studies, if they wish to participate in them.
While clinical trials are not for everyone, the availability of these trials serves as a hallmark of our ability to offer leading-edge treatment.
As a leader of the Stony Brook Cancer Center, our soft tissue specialist and her teams are committed to providing the most sophisticated, compassionate, and timely surgical oncology services.
Visit our Patient Care section for more information about our melanoma and sarcoma surgery service.