Local surgeon outlines breast cancer treatment options, emphasizes early detection

HANNIBAL, Mo. (KHQA) — Most breast cancer patients require surgery. Patricia Hirner, MD, a surgeon with Blessing Health Hannibal, outlines surgical treatment options and emphasizes the importance of early detection.

She says there are two standard options nationwide. “It’s a lumpectomy, which takes out the bad spot, or a mastectomy, which is removal of one or both breasts. Traditional mastectomies leave a woman with a flat chest without a nipple.”

According to Dr. Hirner, as the treatment for mastectomy has advanced, there is now a procedure called a nipple-sparing mastectomy. During this procedure, all the breast tissue is removed from under the skin, along with the cancer, leaving the patient with a nipple under which breast reconstruction is performed.

Many patients go home the same day of their surgery. The biggest challenge can be pain, which prevents some patients from leaving the hospital right away.

Dr. Hirner said, “We are always working to decrease their pain. That’s the reason I can send most of my mastectomy patients home, which is a bigger surgery, because of the ability of what we call ‘local blocks.’ This is the use of local anesthetic. It relieves much of the pain. It’s surgery. It hurts. But with local blocks the pain is tolerable enough to go home.”

Depending on a woman’s cancer, post-surgical radiation or medical oncology treatments, or both, may also be required.

While being diagnosed with cancer is stressful, Dr. Hirner has some advice.

“What I share with patients is, depending on the stage of the cancer, this is not a death sentence as it once was. So, if we do our mammograms and find cancer at an early stage, most women with breast cancer are going to have a normal lifespan. They’ll live a long time, to see their kids and grandkids grow up.”

Dr. Hirner says that the process can be hard and it’s amazing to see her patients push through it all.

“I know this is a very hard thing for women to go through and it’s my goal, and my desire, to take care of them the best as I can, as if they are one of my family members. I see them, my patients, years after their initial diagnosis and it is gratifying to see them through the whole process.”

Thank you to Peter’s Heating and Air Conditioning for sponsoring these stories of hope and education during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.