WRNMMC, Bethesda, Md.  –   As part of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’s Murtha Cancer Center hosted “Breast Cancer Summit 2023,” part of a nationwide conversation to improve outcomes for the more than 280,000 women diagnosed each year with breast cancer in the United States.

This year’s summit took place on the campus of the Uniformed Services University’s (USU) F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, a world-renowned institution that has trained more than 25 percent of the nation’s active-duty physicians.

A distinguished panel of breast cancer subject matter experts presented their findings during an engaging summit led by U.S. Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Matt Nealeigh, the Director of Walter Reed’s Breast Care and Research Center.

“Today's summit was centered on a real-world patient and how each of the various experts in different specialties would approach this complicated case and the multiple options for treatments,” shared retired U.S. Army Col. (Dr.) Craig D. Shriver, Director of the Murtha Cancer Center, and a professor of surgery with USU.

Dr. Jennifer Plichta, the Director of the Breast Risk Assessment Clinic at the Duke Cancer Institute provided her insight on the topic of “Holistic Care of the High-Risk Breast Patient,” sharing information from the more than 100 articles she has published.

Speaking on the topic of “Medical Perspectives of Breast Lesion Chemoprevention,” retired U.S. Army Col. (Dr.) Jeremy Perkins, the Chair of Walter Reed’s Committee on Cancer, shared his strategies on building trust with patients to produce the best outcomes.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Jennifer Sabino, the Chief of Plastic Surgery at Walter Reed, meticulously demystified the world of breast implants in her presentation titled “Impact of Augmentation on Management of Breast Lesions.”

Before Nealeigh’s closing remarks, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. (Dr.) Anna Torgeson, the Chief of Radiation Oncology at Walter Reed, shared her insights on maintaining trust with patients in a presentation titled “Postoperative Radiation in the Reconstructed Patient,” an empathetic conversation with patients on the mend.