Surgeons in Chicago?

Jmom,

The only one of the four of whom I’ve heard is Bethke, at Northwestern--and both my former orthopedist and his wife (who was his patient for an ADH lumpectomy) think the world of him.

Depending on whether you’d want to go further north (and who & what systems are in your insurance plan) I would also add Dr. Katherine Yao (my own surgeon who did such a good job with my lumpectomy you can’t tell without looking for the scar which breast had the tumor) and her colleague Dr. David Winchester (who treated my axillary seroma), both at NorthShore Evanston Hospital’s Center For Breast Health; if you are considering the near SW suburbs, Dr. Barbara Krueger at Advocate Christ Medical Center (disclaimer: where my husband’ a cardiologist) did a bilateral mastectomy for my friend’s DCIS (extensive, multifocal and high grade in one breast, ADH in the other). My friend is pleased (she didn’t want either a unilateral or reconstruction, which was what Krueger had recommended). My friend is 70 with small dense breasts and didn’t want to deal with her cancer or mammograms ever again (and being widowed 15 yrs.and not having worn a bra in decades, she felt no need for reconstruction).. Because she is hormone-negative, the mastectomy was the end of treatment for her. (Nobody gets chemo for pure DCIS), She didn’t even need to see an oncologist.

Dr. Yao gave me the option of lumpectomy + radiation, unilateral or bilateral mastectomy with or without reconstruction and showed me videos and studies laying out the pros & cons of each. I had IDC, small but not tiny, hormone-positive/HER2-, grade 2 and was 64 at diagnosis. My tumor was located high and outside in a very large breast; when I learned that with invasive cancer, although it’s true that if the nodes turn out negative radiation isn’t given after mastectomy, it’s not a guarantee that radiation wouldn’t be necessary nor that there was no chance of recurrence. Unilateral mastectomy would have required considerable reduction of my healthy breast for symmetry (no sane doctor would reconstruct an I cup breast to its original side, and they don’t make mastectomy bras & forms that side). Therefore, I would have had no greater “peace of mind” had I opted for unilateral or bilateral mastectomy than I do now, having had a lumpectomy with radiation. (I was node-negative and she got clean margins).

Of course, there is no way to know if your nodes are involved, nor if there’s invasive cancer mixed in with the DCIS, until surgery and sentinel node biopsy. My philosophy is to do the least invasive surgery that’s necessary--they can always re-excise to get clear margins. Once a breast is gone, it’s gone; a reconstruction is a long surgery with a long and tough recovery and will never look and like and have the same sensation as a real breast. But my factors were all favorable for breast-conserving surgery, and my radiation experience was milder than most.

Peace & song,

Sandy