Better Breast Biopsies

Patients of the St. John’s Queens Hospital in Elmhurst can now benefit from the latest technology for diagnosis of breast abnormalities - a minimally invasive, less costly and less scarring procedure known as stereotactic breast biopsy.
The diagnostic process usually consists of two steps. First, an abnormality is detected during a mammogram. Medical practitioners highly recommend a routine annual screening mammography for women 40 and over. Dr. Kap-Jae Sung, director of surgery at St. John’s, believes too many women avoid a mammogram because they are in denial that they can get breast cancer, and yet 200,000 women are diagnosed each year nationwide, resulting in over 50,000 fatalities.
When women do not find any lumps during self-examination and have no family history of breast cancer, they are unwilling to undergo a mammography. In reality, a growth of less than 1cm, about the size of a marble, can rarely be felt, while a mammogram can discover abnormalities the size of a piece of dust, as invisible to the eye as the period that ends this sentence. A tumor that small, even malignant, discovered early is almost 100 percent curable.
The second step is a breast biopsy to check whether the growth is benign or cancerous. The good news is that over 80 percent of the abnormalities are not malignant. Yet the standard diagnostic technique up until now was invasive, a surgical biopsy that leaves a large scar on the breast and keeps a person away from work and everyday activities for a week.
The new stereotactic biopsy requires only 2-3 mm of puncture (the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen), done with local anesthesia. A computer-guided needle pinpoints the area of abnormality and obtains only enough tissue to diagnose for cancer.
“You have such an evolution in technology, you have to use it,” said Dr. Sung. “And even here in New York, I see very advanced cancers.”
While it is true that only 1 in every 2000 women in their 20’s will have breast cancer, the ratio increases to 1 in every 25 to women in their 60’s. “If you find it at stage 3, it means surgery, chemo; it could cost your breast, sometimes your life,” said Dr. Sung. “Early detection means less surgery.”
For the past 10 years, St. John’s has provided a breast-screening program for women of lower socioeconomic means. “There is a lot of help out there, but people don’t know about it,” said Dr. Sung. “With early diagnosis, patients don’t have to lose their hair, their breast, or their life.”