Breast Cancer Services

When you hear breast cancer, you may go numb. Fear, anger and many more emotions tumble together as you grapple with what the diagnosis might mean for your life, your work and your family.

With Sutter Health, you’ll have dedicated, determined and skillful doctors, nurses and care staff working for your good and the good of those you love. Every year, we screen, diagnose, treat and support thousands of women and men dealing with breast cancer. Our acclaimed Nurse Navigator Program, available at all nine cancer centers in the Sutter Health network, provides you with a single, compassionate and knowledgeable point of contact for every step in your cancer journey, from genetic counseling and testing to financial concerns.

Because we believe health encompasses your whole being—body, mind and spirit—we offer in-depth integrative and complementary care, including woman-to-woman support groups, free classes on topics ranging from yoga and nutrition to hair loss and skin care, and healing touch through massage, acupuncture and pet therapy. We also provide sophisticated, compassionate pain management and palliative care services to keep you comfortable throughout your treatment.

Mammograms and Other Breast Diagnostic Options

Detecting cancer at its earliest stage can save your life. We provide complete blood count (CBC) tests and chemistry panels to screen for anomalies. Less-invasive breast biopsy options include stereotactic, ultrasound and sentinel-node biopsies. And because mammography remains critical to early diagnosis, we invest significantly in the most up-to-date and effective methods.

All Sutter Health breast centers use digital mammography  exclusively, which creates crisper images, uses less radiation than film and allows your doctor to take advantage of detailed electronic image-viewing tools. Our breast cancer care centers also provide other advanced imaging options, including 3-D mammography, thermography and PET scans.

Treatments Tailored to Your Case

The best treatments depend on your personal situation and characteristics. Healthcare providers in the Sutter Health network draw from traditional and state-of-the-art, U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved precision medicine options to tailor a treatment plan that’s unique to you. At many of our breast cancer centers, multidisciplinary panels of experts—including radiologists, pathologists, breast surgeons, oncologists and others—review every breast cancer case together, in meetings called tumor boards, to combine their collective expertise and craft an approach that best fits each patient.