Breast Care Service | Fort Worth, Texas | UT Southwestern Medical Center

UTSW Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at Fort Worth Breast Care Service provides comprehensive, patient-focused breast care at its Moncrief Cancer Institute location.

We offer the most advanced technologies and techniques available for breast cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment. Patients benefit from the knowledge and experience from an integrated team of breast care specialists. Physicians with breast expertise, radiologists, surgeons, oncologists, therapists, and more work in tandem to carry out groundbreaking research and deliver unsurpassed care.

For each patient, we develop personalized strategies to improve overall health and well-being, with the goal of enhancing quality of life both today and in the future. We have a dedicated registered nurse navigator to coordinate patients’ care and guide them through the process.

Services We Provide

Imaging

Our experienced breast fellowship-trained radiologists use a wide variety of imaging technologies to diagnose, treat, and monitor breast conditions.

Our dynamic and innovative radiology service is committed to achieving the highest standards of patient care and staying on the leading edge of new developments and clinical applications in the ever-changing field of medical imaging.

Breast care service at Fort Worth encompasses several programs devoted to serving the needs of healthy women, patients with benign breast disorders, and those with breast cancer.

We have a national reputation for clinical excellence and offer a wide range of advanced breast imaging technologies. These include:

3D mammography with tomosynthesis
High-resolution ultrasound
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Minimally invasive needle biopsy using stereotactic, ultrasound, or MRI guidance

Treatments

Surgery

The first treatment for breast cancer is often surgery. Breast cancer surgery involves removing the tumor and the surrounding tissue that might be cancerous. We offer every surgical option for women with breast cancer, performed by expert and compassionate surgical oncologists who specialize in breast cancer surgery. We work with our patients to select the surgery that is right for them, considering each patient’s special needs and concerns.

These surgical options include:

Lumpectomy
Oncoplastic partial mastectomy or lumpectomy
Mastectomy
Sentinel lymph node biopsy
Axillary lymph node dissection

Surgery for breast cancer is offered at UT Southwestern’s Clements University Hospital. However, you may see your physician for pre- and post-operation appointments in Fort Worth at Moncrief. Our surgical oncologists work closely with plastic surgeons to help patients make the best decision for reconstruction after breast cancer.

Medical treatment

Breast cancer medical treatment involves a variety of therapies to kill cancer cells, stop them from growing, attack some of their specific characteristics, or decrease the chance of them returning.

We offer the following medical treatments in private infusion rooms at Moncrief Cancer Institute:

Chemotherapy
Hormonal therapy
Neoadjuvant therapy
Targeted therapy

Radiation therapy

Radiation to the breast is often given after breast-conserving surgery to help lower the chance of the cancer recurring in the breast or nearby lymph nodes. UT Southwestern radiation oncologists have pioneered techniques for delivering radiation to the breast while sparing the heart from excess radiation. Our goal is to deliver the best possible treatment while keeping our patients safe and as comfortable as possible. Two types of radiation are traditionally used: external beam radiation therapy and internal radiation therapy, known as brachytherapy.

Radiation therapy is offered at two locations at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. However, you may see your physician for pre- and post- treatment appointments in Fort Worth at Moncrief.

Support Services

We offer complementary support services for improving your overall health and well-being, including:

Fitness training
Dietitian services
Genetic testing and counseling
Mental health services

Preparing for Your Appointment

To make the most of your time with the doctor, prepare a list of questions ahead of time and bring them to your appointment.

On the day of the appointment, please arrive 20 minutes early to allow time for parking and registration. We do our best to see patients at their scheduled appointment time.

Please bring the following items:

Current insurance card
Method of payment
Current medications
Completed paperwork, if you received forms before the visit

To facilitate ongoing communication, we recommend patients sign up with MyChart, which allows patients to communicate directly with doctors, request prescription refills, update contact information, view test results, and request clinic appointments. Sign in or sign up for MyChart.

Canceling an Appointment

If you need to cancel your appointment, please notify the clinic at least 48 hours in advance so that we can accommodate other patients waiting to schedule an appointment.

Prescriptions and Refills

It is very important that patients do not run out of their medications. Be sure that they have sufficient refills to last until their next appointment with their provider. We are happy to provide you with a written prescription upon request.

If you run out of refills, please call your pharmacy and your pharmacist will fax a refill request to us. Please allow us 24 to 48 hours to process refill requests.