Welcome to the East Bay Breast Care Program Website

The Breast Care Center is a specialty clinic located at the Oakland Campus, dedicated to treating patients with breast problems. Such issues may include breast lumps, pain, infections, nipple discharge, and abnormal mammograms. Our collaborative team works together to complete a comprehensive evaluation to ensure early diagnosis and treatment. Our goal is to examine and appropriately image, biopsy and treat the breast abnormalities that we evaluate, all in the same day in some cases. By the end of the exam, each patient will have a full understanding of their diagnosis and treatment plan.

A newly diagnosed breast cancer patient can expect to receive evaluation and treatment of her breast cancer, education and counseling, as well as ongoing follow-up care. The Breast Care Center is located in the Department of Surgery and is staffed by breast surgeons and by non-surgeon breast specialists. The physicians in the Breast Care Center are part of a multidisciplinary team that includes specialists from the Departments of Radiology, Pathology, Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Genetics and Reconstructive Surgery. Please explore our website to learn more about our services.

• Self-Referral Breast Clinic: This is a self-referral breast clinic designed to evaluate, diagnose and treat breast problems, such as pain, nipple discharge and new self detected lumps. This clinic is staffed by trained breast specialist. If you have a breast problem, please call (510) 752-1190 for advice and to schedule an appointment.

• One Day Assessment Clinic: This is a referral-based clinic for women with newly found breast lumps as detected by the referring physician. This clinic offers one day assessment including breast exam, imaging and biopsy if needed. Patients may also be referred from an abnormal mammogram.

• Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Group Session: Any patient with an interest in this topic is welcome to attend this group session which is aimed at educating patients about their true risk factors. Topics covered include nutrition, breast screening guidelines and individual risk assessment. Please contact your primary care provider for a referral. Patients with increased risk factors will be followed in the High Risk clinic. This class is held in the Breast Clinic on the 2nd Friday of each month from 10:00am -11:30am.

• High Risk Prevention Clinic: Patients with a high risk for breast cancer based on family history, genetic testing or other high risk factors are followed in this clinic. After an initial consultation, the breast specialist will determine a long term surveillance plan and potential treatment options. Please speak with your provider for a referral.

• Breast Tumor Board: A multidisciplinary team of health care providers, including breast surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, radiation oncologists, pathologists and geneticists, meets biweekly to discuss cases and determine treatment plans. Not all patients have their case discussed at tumor board. Please speak with your breast surgeon.

• Comprehensive Imaging Services: We provide full service screening and diagnostic mammography, breast ultrasound and breast MRI services at the Oakland Kaiser campus. Our diagnostic breast service is staffed by board certified radiologists. We work very closely with referring primary physicians, surgeons and oncologists to provide comprehensive imaging evaluations. We also perform percutaneous breast biopsies at the Oakland campus using ultrasound, stereotactic and MRI guidance. Our dedicated staff is committed to guiding each patient through the biopsy process in the timeliest and most compassionate way possible.

• Pathology Services: We offer Fine Needle Aspiration to our patients in the breast clinic. This is a biopsy technique that is performed with a very small needle to determine what the cause of a mass may be and to aide in deciding if the area needs to be removed or evaluated further. Often we are able to obtain these results within 24 hours or in some instances on the same day.

Multidisciplinary Breast Cancer Clinic

This clinic is especially designed for all newly diagnosed breast cancer patients to have the opportunity to meet with all of the relevant specialists who would be involved in their treatment and care in one visit. Specialists include physicians from Surgery, Radiation Oncology, Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery. Input from a Radiologist and Pathologist will also be a part of the team approach to treatment planning.