When a 63-year-old female patient was found to have an abnormality on her mammogram, she was referred to Dr. Arnold Baskies. The mammogram revealed an abnormality that doctors said could be breast cancer. The only way to know for sure was to perform a breast biopsy.

“I was so nervous. You never think that something like this could happen to you,” said the patient. "But I wasn’t going to jump to conclusions until I had the biopsy.”

Until recently, a breast biopsy required open surgery, an invasive procedure that, for some women, can lead to scarring and/or pain. The Women’s Center at Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County is among many leading institutions throughout the country offering the Mammotome® Breast Biopsy System as an alternative to an open surgical biopsy. The outpatient procedure is performed in less than an hour, requires no stitches and allows women to return, generally speaking, to their normal routine immediately afterwards with only a small adhesive strip to cover a 3 mm incision that is about the size of a match head.
“I was nervous about what the doctors might find, but the biopsy itself turned out to be a simple procedure” said the patient.
Procedures with the Mammotome® involve the insertion of a small probe directly into the area of the breast that appears suspicious based on physical findings or mammogram findings. With either ultrasound or stereotactic image guidance, the doctor uses the Mammotome® to gently vacuum, cut and remove tissue for examination.

“Women find that the Mammotome® biopsy is easier on them than an open biopsy,” said Dr. Baskies, Director of the Stereotactic Breast Biopsy Center at Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County. (The Mammotome® is highly accurate in helping doctors diagnose early stage and small breast cancers.)

More than one million breast biopsies are performed each year in the United States, of which approximately eight out of ten result in benign, non-cancerous findings.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, excluding skin cancers. The American Cancer Society estimated that in 2008 approximately 250,230 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed among women in the United States. Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that develops from cells of the breast. Every woman is at risk for breast cancer. Hereditary breast cancer counts for only 5 to 10% of all cases. The American Cancer Society lists risk factors as: Aging, personal or family history of breast cancer; early menstruation, childbirth after age 30 or no childbirth, and menopause after 50. However, over 70% of all women diagnosed with breast cancer, have no identifiable risk factors.

A woman and her doctor must take care to notice any changes in the breast. These changes can be detected during monthly breast self examinations and annual mammograms. A mammogram is a special x-ray of the breast that can find tumors that are often too small to feel. The American Cancer Society recommends women over age 40 have an annual mammogram. Today, more women than ever are surviving breast cancer, in large part, because of screenings that lead to early diagnosis. Nevertheless, more than 40,000 women die each year from breast cancer, so it is vital that women understand the new choices they have when faced with the possibility of a breast cancer.