- [Cara] My name is Dr. Cara Marie Guilfoyle.
I'm a Breast Surgery Specialist, and I'm working at
the Allentown campus on Centronia Road.
Well the thing about breast surgery is
it's generally a very curable disease.
When I was a general surgeon, I learned what it was like
to fight a losing battle.
While I am a team player, I like to play
on a competitive team.
And with breast cancer, 89 percent of patients
are living five years or more
after their breast cancer diagnosis.
And with the right treatment and the right care,
which is what we're doing here at Coordinated Health,
we can fight together and win.
Well I grew up in the northeastern Pennsylvania area,
and I went to Scranton University.
I was pre-med there,
and I also double-majored in philosophy.
Then I went to MCP Hahnemann, which has then
eventually turned into Drexel Med.
And I went to Temple University Hospital
for my general surgery training.
And after that I did a one-year breast fellowship
with Tom Frasier at Bryn Mawr Hospital.
Some of the conditions that I treat include
benign and malignant breast cancer.
Breast pain, also breasts cysts and breast abscesses.
Also duct ecstasia, which is a dilatation
of the breast ducts, which happens normally
in any aging process, and also after breast feeding.
There's also atypical lesions that sometimes you might see
on a mammogram or an ultrasound,
and they might need to be removed just to make sure
that there's no upstaging or no cancer
actually associated with it.
And then I also treat malignant lesions,
which include invasive carcinomas as well as
ductal carcinoma in situ.
Unless you have a family member who had breast cancer
earlier than the age of 40, then you should start
your yearly mammograms at the age of 40.
And you should also do self breast exams every month.
And you should try to do that between days
7 and 14 of your cycle.
And then you should also make sure that you have
a clinical breast exam.
Well women should see a breast surgeon if,
for one reason if they have a strong family history
of breast cancer.
One of the things we do in our office is risk assessment.
So there are certain tools that we can use
to assess a patient's risk for developing breast cancer
throughout their life.
And if that particular risk is very high,
then we can do certain preventative measures
to help that patient reduce their risk.
The screening mammograms are really what has been
allowing us to diagnose breast cancer earlier and earlier.
So if something was to be seen on your
mammogram that was abnormal,
or if it was seen on an ultrasound that's abnormal,
we're doing these biopsies right in the office.
You do not need to go to the operating room.
We are able to localize the area
with radiologic guidance, and then use a needle biopsy
to take a sample of that, send it the lab,
and get a diagnosis for you within just a few days.
So I settled here in the Lehigh Valley
for two reasons really.
One was so that I could be a little bit closer to my family,
who's originally from West Pittston.
And another reason is to get out of the city
and be closer to some great mountain biking
and a really wonderful population here.
Some of my outside hobbies include competitive cycling,
running and mountain biking.
I actually am very involved in adventure racing,
which is a multi-sport event.
It's all navigation-based.
It's a team-based event, so you're with
two or three other teammates, and they range anywhere
from six hours to twelve hours to
I've done 24 and even 36-hour races.
You work very closely when you're taking care of
breast cancer patients.
If a patient does need a mastectomy, then most of the time
they're gonna want some kind of reconstruction.
And it takes some very careful consideration between
the breast surgeon and the plastic surgeon to decide
what's gonna be the best reconstruction option
for that patient.
Well my patients have the added benefit of the
very close working relationship I have with my husband,
Greg Guilfoyle, who is a plastic surgeon
here at Coordinated Health.
One of the newer treatment options also is
something termed oncoplastic surgery.
And this is something in which using certain incisions
and certain tissue rearrangements, you can actually
conserve a breast that might otherwise
be required to have a mastectomy.
And you can only do this process if you're able to
work very closely with your plastic surgeon,
because I as the breast surgeon would be doing the excision,
but the plastic surgeon would be marking the patient
for the incisions and doing the tissue rearrangements.
So the fact that I can work very closely
with my plastic surgeon really opens up a wide array
of additional procedures that I can offer to my patients.
Well I do what I do because I have had
family members that had breast cancer.
And I know what it's like, as a family member,
to watch them go through a hardship,
and to know how much it means to them to survive
beyond their battle.
And the fact that I can play a part in that
and help people get through it,
and then watch them two, three, five years later
after their breast cancer is gone,
walk out of my office happy and smiling,
that's what makes me go to work every day.