York Hospital Breast Care: Close. Convenient. Comprehensive.
At York Hospital’s Breast Center in York and Wells, we take a multidisciplinary approach to comprehensive, coordinated breast care, giving patients access to fellowship-trained specialists. Whether you are seeking preventive care, diagnosis, or treatment for cancer, our team works together to ensure that you receive personalized care.
Our fellowship-trained experts include Breast Radiology, Surgical Oncology, and Breast Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Each expert team member provides specialized knowledge and a compassionate approach to your care. The center is also home to dedicated Nurse Navigators and Mammography Technologists who provide guidance throughout your care journey. As a team, we are committed to offering the most accurate, effective, and personalized care based on the best science available, wherever your journey leads. This collaborative approach ensures that every patient receives a treatment plan tailored not only to their cancer, but also to their goals, lifestyle, and long-term well-being.
Letter from our medical director
Designated Comprehensive Breast Imaging Center
York Hospital Breast Care is one of the few fully accredited American College of Radiology Designated Comprehensive Breast Imaging Centers in Maine and New Hampshire. We’re fully accredited in mammography, stereotactic breast biopsy, breast ultrasound, and ultrasound-guided biopsy.
Breast Radiologist: Expert Imaging and Diagnosis
Our dedicated breast fellowship-trained radiologists specialize in interpreting breast images, including mammograms, MRIs, and ultrasounds. With years of training, they are experts in identifying even the most subtle signs of breast cancer, ensuring early and accurate diagnoses. By exclusively interpreting breast images and performing breast procedures, our radiologists reduce the likelihood of false positives and perform more accurate biopsies, giving you greater peace of mind.
What Sets Our Breast Radiologists Apart:
- Specialized Expertise: Focused solely on breast imaging, including the challenges of dense breast tissue.
- Minimally Invasive Biopsies: Image-guided biopsies—ultrasound, stereotactic, or MRI-guided—are performed to minimize the need for surgical biopsies, making diagnosis quicker and more comfortable.
- Direct Patient Communication: Unlike many radiologists, our experts often discuss findings with you in real time, answering your questions and providing clarity.
- Collaborative Care: Our breast radiologists work closely with breast surgeons, oncologists, and pathologists to ensure a comprehensive care plan tailored to your needs.
- High-Risk Screening: We provide personalized screening plans, including MRI for patients at higher risk of breast cancer.
Detect Breast Cancer Earlier with 3D Mammography
A yearly mammogram can increase your chances of surviving breast cancer by more than 40%. We proudly provide the most advanced breast cancer screening. Every patient is imaged with 3D mammography, which allows our radiologists to see breast tissue in ways that are not previously possible. If needed, we also offer complete breast ultrasounds for patients with dense breast tissue and targeted ultrasound, as part of your diagnostic imaging workup. Additionally, our York location provides breast MRI and stereotactic (X-ray-guided) breast biopsy services.
Receive Your Breast Care Results the Way You Want
When scheduling your appointment, you have the option to receive same-day results while you wait, or results within a few days. Live reads are available in York on Mondays and Fridays before 2 p.m. Diagnostic exams for an area of concern in the breast or patients returning for additional imaging will receive results live at the appointment. If same-day results aren’t available, you’ll receive results via mail in four to seven days.
If you’re registered for the York Hospital Patient Portal, you may view your results online within two to seven days. If any area on your exam requires further evaluation, we’ll contact you by phone.
Breast care services offered
Every York Hospital Breast Care patient receives 3D tomosynthesis mammography, performed by our expert technologists. 3D tomosynthesis mammography is proven to detect on average 41% more invasive breast cancer and reduce callbacks by up to 40% compared to 2D alone.
York Hospital Breast Care has been performing complete breast ultrasound for dense breast tissue for over 10 years, longer than any center on the Seacoast. This experience results in a lower false positive rate (fewer follow-up exams and unnecessary biopsies) and an increased cancer detection rate. Adding supplemental complete breast ultrasound for patients who have dense breast tissue increases detection of smaller, node-negative breast cancers. Finding these earlier stage breast cancers gives our patients a higher chance of cure.
At York Hospital Breast Care, every patient is screened to see if they are at high risk for developing breast cancer (3-5% of patients typically qualify as high risk). Patients who are considered at high risk, based on either personal or family history, are offered to have additional screening with breast MRI. This is typically performed 6 months from your annual screening mammogram.
Every physician at York Hospital Breast Care is a board-certified, breast fellowship-trained radiologist who works exclusively as a breast radiologist. This expertise is paramount to performing accurate and safe breast biopsies with minimal discomfort. Our breast radiologists perform stereotactic tomosynthesis, ultrasound, and MRI-guided breast biopsies.
At York Hospital, our board-certified breast fellowship-trained radiologists also perform breast tumor localization in collaboration with our surgeons using MagSeed. MagSeed is a wireless, non-radioactive, inert seed made of surgical-grade stainless steel. The MagSeed is removed by your surgeon during surgery.
Breast Surgical Oncology: Specialized Care for Breast Cancer
Our Breast Surgical Oncologist is a fellowship-trained cancer surgeon who provides treatment for breast cancer, with expertise in managing both early and advanced stages of malignancy. In combination with your breast radiologist and reconstructive surgeon, we form a collaborative care team focused on the best treatment options for each patient.
Types of Breast Cancer Surgery
A lumpectomy removes the tumor along with a margin of surrounding healthy tissue while preserving most of the breast. This approach is commonly recommended for early-stage cancers and is typically followed by radiation therapy to reduce the risk of recurrence.
A mastectomy removes all breast tissue and may also include skin, the nipple, or nearby structures depending on the cancer’s extent. Multiple mastectomy techniques allow our surgeons to tailor the procedure to our patients’ cancer treatment and reconstruction goals.
For individuals with high genetic risk (such as BRCA mutations), preventive removal of one or both breasts may be considered. This approach significantly lowers—but does not eliminate—the risk of developing breast cancer.
This technique preserves the nipple and areola while removing underlying breast tissue. It can improve cosmetic outcomes for patients who are appropriate candidates based on tumor location and safety criteria.
This minimally invasive procedure removes the first few lymph nodes where cancer is most likely to spread. If these nodes are cancer-free, additional lymph node surgery may be avoided—reducing complications such as lymphedema.
If cancer is found in sentinel nodes, additional lymph nodes in the underarm area may be removed to determine how far the cancer has spread. This helps guide decisions about chemotherapy and radiation.
Oncoplastic surgery combines cancer removal with reconstructive techniques at the same time. This approach allows our surgeons to remove larger tumors while maintaining breast shape and symmetry.
Breast Reconstruction: Restoring Confidence After Surgery
For patients undergoing breast surgery, our plastic and reconstructive surgeon brings more than two decades of experience in breast reconstruction to your care team. She understands the profound emotional and physical impact of losing all or part of your breast and is committed to helping you regain a positive body image through state-of-the-art reconstructive techniques that create natural-looking results. Our patients’ reconstructive surgery is highly individualized and focuses on restoring breast shape, symmetry, and quality of life.
Types of Breast Reconstruction
This approach uses saline or silicone implants to recreate the breast. It is less invasive than flap procedures and often involves shorter recovery, making it a common option.
A temporary expander is placed under the skin and gradually filled over time to prepare the area for a permanent implant. This staged approach is widely used and allows the body to adapt gradually before final reconstruction.
Fat is transferred from another part of the body to improve breast contour and symmetry. Frequently used as a secondary or refining procedure, it enhances cosmetic outcomes after primary reconstruction.
Typically performed at a later stage, this procedure recreates the nipple and areola to complete the reconstruction process and improve overall appearance.
