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Outstanding feedback from patients and the Cancer Institute of New South Wales has led Sydney's San Integrated Cancer Centre to open a new breast care facility.
Sydney Adventist Hospital, known as the San, achieved some of the highest ratings in the Bureau of Health Information patient survey, conducted in partnership with the NSW Cancer Institute in 2020, for the cancer centre for the third year in a row.
Those results led to the foundation of San Breast Care, bringing together an integrated and multidisciplinary service for patients.
The centre includes state-of-the-art imaging, a full range of surgical and reconstructive services, comprehensive medical oncology services, expert on-site cancer genetics, the most up-to-date radiation oncology technology and techniques, clinical trials and extensive cancer support services.
San Breast Care Imaging has opened after significant renovation of the facility and installation of the best imaging equipment available.
Associate Professor Michael Hughes, the hospital's clinical director of surgical services and chairman of the San Breast Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), said the new clinic had all the qualities to make it one of the best breast care services in the country.
"Our success comes in part from being a high-volume service, which is known to achieve better clinical outcomes for patients," he said.
"At the same time, the service is anything but a 'factory'. Everyone who comes under our care is treated as an individual, and every case is looked at as unique by a group of very experienced specialists.
"Consistent with the San's larger Integrated Cancer Care model, San Breast Care has all the ingredients for outstanding care located in a single institution.
"The result is a very patient-centred model run by a hugely empathetic, experienced and collaborative team of health professionals."
San Breast Care will enable patients and their General Practitioners access rapid diagnostic assessment and specialist consultation.
Professor John Boyages, a radiation oncologist and breast cancer specialist who practices at Icon Cancer Centre on-site at the hospital, said San Breast Care brought together dedicated caring staff in a 'one-stop shop' centre of excellence.
"Patients seek my opinion from rural or regional NSW, interstate and the Asia-Pacific, and are amazed at the sophistication and depth of our team," he said.
Prof Boyages has more than 35 years of experience in breast cancer care both in Australia and overseas, and was a pioneer of MDT in Australia.
"San Breast Care is also one of the best resourced centres in the world with investment in nurse navigators in surgery and imaging," he said.
"The fortnightly MDT meeting is the best I've seen and I'm very proud to be part of it. And having on-site accommodation with support services is greatly appreciated by our patients."
First established almost 20 years ago, with support from the NSW Cancer Institute, MDTs at the San meet regularly and are made up of representatives from all the relevant specialities and support services
"Our meeting space has a circular design, lending itself to discussion and collegiality," A/Prof Hughes said.
"Every patient discussed is entered into a database that allows us to easily measure outcomes and performance.
"At any given meeting, we have around six or seven breast surgeons, three or four radiation oncologists, two or three medical oncologists, breast care nurses, nuclear medicine physicians, pathologists, radiologists, allied health workers including lymphoedema practitioners, and a genetics oncologist and the all-important patient navigators. Occasionally, pharmacy joins us, too.
"It's a superb meeting with superb technology underpinning it.
"We discuss every patient and there is a wide range of input. Care plans are written in both the context of clinical information and also in consideration of the whole person.
"We take the time needed to discuss the nuances, subtleties and complexities of a patient's diagnosis."
Breast imaging is often the point of entry into a cancer service and can be the most distressing time for a patient.
Associate Professor Gavin Marx said San radiologists had a "very caring and empathetic approach", and the patient always came first.
"San Breast Care has a dedicated breast imaging and assessment service that has a broad scope – from assessing asymptomatic women who want thorough review, through to those diagnosed with breast cancer," he said.
"Because it's a dedicated service, the radiologists are specialists in breast radiology. Everyone is highly experienced in this area of breast health."
The San now offers 3D tomosynthesis imaging, contrast mammography and MRI-guided biopsy, as well as short-sequence MRI imaging – to make the procedure quicker and more comfortable – and plans to integrate AI software into mammography.
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