|
Julie Eileen Lang, MD, a fellowship-trained breast surgical oncologist, has been appointed assistant professor of surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and University Physicians Healthcare. Dr. Lang, who will be a member of the Arizona Cancer Center, comes to the UA highly qualified having completed a Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the nationally renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Dr. Lang’s breast surgery practice focuses on the full spectrum of malignant and benign breast diseases, including breast masses, breast pain, abnormal mammograms and breast cancer. She also consults with high-risk patients, such as those with a family history of breast cancer or prior breast biopsies showing atypical findings. Additionally, she will open a clinic for women with inflammatory or locally advanced breast cancer at the Arizona Cancer Center so that these patients will have the opportunity to be treated by a multidisciplinary team with extensive experience with these diseases. Specializing in skin sparing mastectomy and immediate reconstruction, Dr. Lang employs surgical techniques that optimize results both medically and cosmetically for her breast surgery patients. She is very enthusiastic about “oncoplastic” surgery, techniques in which the surgeon plans a lumpectomy and rearranges the local tissue to improve aesthetic outcomes. She performs ultrasound-guided minimally invasive core needle biopsy of suspicious breast lesions and uses sentinel lymph node biopsy, a minimally invasive technique to check to see if cancer has spread to lymph nodes. The co-author of several publications, Dr. Lang’s research focuses on circulating tumor cells and breast cancer stem cells. “Circulating tumor cells may represent the hidden burden of metastatic disease responsible for breast cancer recurrences up to 20 years after an initial diagnosis. My lab will study circulating tumor cells and cancer stem cells in an effort to find better targets for treatment. This research is relevant to all stages of breast cancer in an effort to treat minimal residual disease in order to achieve cures,” she says. Dr. Lang’s expertise complements the Arizona Cancer Center’s team approach to patient care. Dr. Lang joins a dedicated staff and will work closely with colleagues from Surgery, Pathology, Radiology, Medical Oncology and Radiation Oncology to provide highly integrated treatment plans that are specialized to the individual needs of each patient. She will be an Arizona Cancer Center member in the Cancer Biology group. |
|
“I strongly believe in the multidisciplinary approach to caring for breast cancer patients,” Dr. Lang says. “Communication with the patient and other physicians involved is critical to avoid delays in treatment and provide the best outcomes possible.”
Dr. Lang completed her residency and a postdoctoral cancer research fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. She received her medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the recipient of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Foundation Merit Award while at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
“Dr. Lang is a highly skilled surgeon covering the whole range of diseases of the breast. She also is conducting extremely relevant research to study the role of stem cells in recurrent breast cancer to improve outcomes for patients with this treacherous disease,” says Rainer Gruessner, MD, professor and chairman of the UA Department of Surgery. “Dr. Lang is part of an ongoing expansion of surgical oncology within the Department of Surgery in order to increase cancer treatment options for the citizens of Tucson and Arizona.”
