What’s great about this time of the year is one gets to see balikbayan friends who are here for the holidays. I was just too happy to spend some time with two of my closest friends, breast surgeon Dr. Norman San Agustin and his lovely wife Biba who are in town from New Jersey, USA, for their yearly sabbatical.
During one of our many dinners, this good doctor told us some exciting news that is happening in the field of breast disease management.
Dr. San Agustin became controversial when he was featured recently on the editorial page of the New Jersey Society of Plastic Surgeons. According to the article, there’s a breast surgeon (Dr. San Agustin) who is now doing oncoplastic surgery, a new field that combines the best outcome from two specializations: surgical oncology and plastic surgery.
Dr. San Agustin was perceived as a harbinger of bad things to come when breast surgeons would be invading their (plastic surgeons) once-exclusive turf of breast reconstruction.
Among the many advanced and innovative procedures done by Dr. San Agustin are: 1) A five-day partial radiation with Mammosite, offered as an alternative traditional six weeks of total breast radiation therapy, as an adjunct to lumpectomy. 2) After performing a lumpectomy, the remaining cavity is reshaped so that the end result is a natural-looking matching breast created within a single procedure. 3) For those who need to have the entire breast removed, Dr. San Agustin offers a skin and nipple/areolar complex preservation with immediate reconstruction. It’s like a taxidermist gutting out the contents of an animal and stuffing it to preserve the life-like appearance of the animal. With this technique, Dr. San Agustin is able to remove all of the breast tissue, including the cancer cells (without removing any of the breast skin and the nipple/areolar complex), then replace it with natural tissue or implant thereby preserving the natural appearance of the breast. This technique also offers an option for women who are at high risk of developing breast cancer to undergo prophylactic mastectomy for both breasts.
In the past, women who have a history of breast cancer in their family (mother, sister, aunts) are kept in suspense and could only hope and pray that they get spared from this awful disease. Nowadays, these women have the bold option of having a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy with reconstruction. This eliminates the threat of cancer while preserving and even enhancing the appearance of their breasts.
This is indeed good and exciting news for all women because it completely changes the paradigm of breast cancer management. Gone are the days of mutilating breast procedures when more surgery was thought to be better without any consideration of a woman’s appearance. This New Year ushers in a whole new way of removing cancer while preserving a woman’s dignity and self image.
Thank God for bold and innovative surgeons like Dr. Norman San Agustin.