The Future Of Breast Cancer Therapy: An Interview With Peter D. Beitsch, MD, FACS

As breast cancer management moves toward a more patient-centric, personalized approach, patients and their doctors are being offered more treatment choices than ever before. (See Also see "The Evolving World Of Breast Cancer Management" - Medtech Insight, 6 July, 2012..) This expansion in options encompasses not only traditional areas, such as post-surgery radiation therapy, but now also involves new surgical techniques designed to provide better cosmetic results for the growing number of patients who choose mastectomy over breast-sparing lumpectomy as their treatment of choice. To gain additional insight into these trends, Medtech Insight recently spoke with Peter D. Beitsch, MD, FACS, director of the Dallas Breast Center, chief physician of the Dallas Surgical Group, Medical City Dallas Hospital, and co-principal investigator for the ongoing American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBS)-directed MammoSite Registry, which is tracking the long-term outcomes of lumpectomy patients treated with Hologic Inc.’s MammoSite breast brachytherapy device. According to Dr. Beitsch, women are increasingly choosing mastectomy over breast-sparing lumpectomy and that trend is being driven in part by recent surgical advances, most notably the growing availability of nipple-sparing mastectomy, which he calls a “revolutionary” new oncoplastic technique.

Medtech Insight: How have advances in reconstructive surgery impacted breast cancer management in recent years?