If you or your family member has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, let the dedicated cancer care team at Ellis Fischel Cancer Center help find the right treatment for you.
Our breast care team has advanced, specialized training in all aspects of breast health and we’re home to new technology such as the region’s only automated whole breast ultrasound. Our specialized team provides complete care for all patients with routine breast health needs as well as those diagnosed with breast cancer.
MU Health Care's Ellis Fischel Breast Center is accredited by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers, an American College of Surgeons quality program. This means our breast center meets or exceeds all national guidelines and quality measures.
Our nursing staff includes a dedicated nurse navigator who assists you with your journey through diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Integrated within our clinic is our breast imaging center, offering 3D mammography, ultrasonography and breast MRI. Patients with increased personal risk are followed closely by our high-risk breast clinic.
Our breast cancer services
Our breast cancer team provides services necessary to women’s breast health, including:
- Breast surgery, including reconstructive surgery and plastic surgery
- Diagnostic services such as mammograms, ultrasound, breast MRI and biopsy
- Dietitians
- Financial assistance resources
- Genetic cancer risk assessment
- High-risk breast clinic
- Lymphedema education and therapy
- Medical oncology services
- Palliative care
- Patient navigation
- Ellis Boutique: Prosthetic and cosmetic support
- Radiation oncology
- Screening mammography outreach van
- Second opinion clinic if you’ve already been diagnosed with cancer
- Spiritual care
Ellis Fischel also partners with the Show Me Healthy Women program, which offers free breast and cervical cancer screenings for Missouri women who meet age, income and insurance guidelines.
Our breast cancer team
At MU Health Care you have access to a highly skilled multispecialty team of physicians, nurses, diagnostic radiology professionals and many other health experts to treat your breast health-related issues. Our team takes care of you before, during and after treatment. We include you in each step of the decision-making process so that you and your family understand what to expect. We answer your questions, discuss treatment options, explain procedures, schedule appointments and provide caring support.
Breast cancer risk
Women who might be at a higher risk of developing breast cancer include those who:
- Have a family history of breast cancer especially at an early age (less than age 50) and/or ovarian cancer at any age. This includes one or more women or men in your family who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
- Are older as your risk of developing breast cancer increases with age.
- Have certain lifestyle risk factors or reproductive risk factors.
- Carry a dominant cancer predisposition gene mutation (such as in BRCA1, BRCA2, or another cancer predisposition gene). Both men and women can pass a harmful breast cancer gene mutation to their offspring.
- Are of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry
Breast cancer in men
Breast cancer doesn’t just affect women. Although less than 1% of all breast cancers occur in men, you want an expert team if you face a cancer diagnosis. At MU Health Care, our team provides personalized care for men who are diagnosed with breast cancer. Risk factors include a family history of breast cancer, inherited gene mutations, Klinefelter syndrome, radiation exposure, estrogen-related drug treatments and liver disease.
Breast cancer medical oncology
For breast cancer patients, medication is used in a variety of ways including before surgery, after surgery and to slow advanced cancers. Breast cancers can also be treated through targeted therapy, hormone therapy and immunotherapy. Our team will identify your specific type of breast cancer and create a personalized treatment plan for you.
Hormone therapy
Hormone therapy can be effective if your breast cancer has receptors for the hormones estrogen and/or progesterone. If you don't have any hormone receptors, hormone therapy won't work. Hormone therapy can help treat breast cancers that are hormone receptor positive, estrogen receptor positive and/or progesterone receptor positive.
Targeted therapy
Targeted therapies are available if your breast cancer is HER2 positive, which means the cancer cells have proteins that promote cancer growth, or if the cancer is hormone-receptor-positive. These two types of breast cancer can be treated through specific targeted therapies.
- HER2 medications:These medications generally take advantage of HER2 receptors, either by blocking them so cancer cells can't receive instructions to divide and grow, or by using them to deliver instructions that disrupt cell functions.
- Hormone receptor positive medications: Medications that help hormone therapies work better do so by inhibiting cancer cell functions.
Living beyond breast cancer
As you complete your cancer treatment, you might be thinking about what happens next. Returning to everyday life can be challenging.
Ellis Fischel helps survivors live their lives to the fullest after treatment. Our unique survivorship clinic is designed exclusively for survivors of breast cancer. In the clinic, you’ll meet with our specially trained advanced practice nurse and a dietitian, all in one private visit. Here you'll have the opportunity to address survivorship concerns such as emotional, physical, sexual and relationship issues.
Benefits of participating in the survivorship clinic include:
- A personalized treatment summary for you and your primary care physician
- Access to local and national resources that address survivorship issues
- Education and coordination of follow-up care with your primary care physician and oncologist
- Nutrition and exercise recommendations
- Recommendations for future health observation guidelines
- Tips for managing long-term side effects and late effects related to treatment
To learn more, call 573-882-2100.
Our leading-edge research and clinical trials
In addition to highly specialized diagnosis and treatment options, physicians at Ellis Fischel are part of an academic health system and lead clinical trials for various types of cancer, including breast cancer.
