Bay Area woman among first in U.S. to undergo groundbreaking breast cancer surgery - San Francisco Chronicle

What the report says

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Vicky Pan, a Moraga resident being treated for breast cancer, became one of the first patients in the United States to receive a new robotic form of nipple-sparing mastectomy outside a clinical trial. The procedure was performed in March at Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland by Dr. Rita Kwan-Feinberg, who the Chronicle described as a leading surgeon in the technique.

Pan, then 45, was diagnosed after finding a lump last summer despite having no family history of breast cancer and a clear mammogram earlier that year, according to the Chronicle. Her cancer was identified as Stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer that had advanced locally and reached lymph nodes under her arm. After six months of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, she chose the robotic operation over a traditional mastectomy after reviewing risks and benefits with her surgeon.

The Chronicle reports that the single-port robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy had previously been performed in clinical trials at academic centers, and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the technology for this use in December. The approach uses a smaller incision under the breast and is intended to reduce scarring and tissue trauma while improving the chance of preserving nipple sensation, according to Kwan-Feinberg and trial findings cited in the report.

Pan told the Chronicle her recovery involved little pain and about three weeks of healing. She is continuing chemotherapy and immunotherapy because residual disease remained after initial treatment, and she expects to finish treatment in October before planned reconstruction in November. The case matters because it signals movement of a specialized robotic breast cancer surgery from trials into a community medical setting.