Duke’s Breast Program is multidisciplinary -- designed to allow a woman to be seen by a team of specialists including a medical oncologist, surgical oncologist, radiation oncologist, and mental health professionals, all within one setting.

Physical therapists and self-image resources are available as well. The breast cancer medical care team meets weekly to discuss individual patient cases and to formulate and review individual treatment plans.

A Wide Range of Treatments

There is no one-treatment-fits-all approach at Duke. We design each patient’s therapy to fit the unique parameters of her disease, drawing upon a wide range of available treatments.

These include local treatments that treat cancer just in the breast or an area of the breast -- such as surgery and radiation therapy -- and systemic treatments that can treat cancer cells elsewhere in the body, such as chemotherapy and hormonal therapy.

Duke breast cancer patients also have access to a wide range of clinical trials testing the very latest therapies.

As one of just ten U.S. medical centers designated by the National Cancer Institute as a Specialized Program in Research Excellence (SPORE) for breast cancer, Duke leads dozens of basic and clinical investigations to discover better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat the disease.