Pins stuck in a map mounted to the wall at the entrance of The Ashikari Breast Center in Dobbs Ferry mark the places around the nation that patients come from, seeking diagnosis and treatment for a disease that affects one in eight women.
“One of the most important things we have here is a good support network,” said Dr. Pond Kelemen, one of three breast surgeons at the center, located in the Dobbs Ferry Pavilion of St. John”™s Riverside Hospital. “Being diagnosed with breast cancer is very stressful and as doctors we can take care of a patient from A to Z. The small, community nature of this hospital is a real plus. It is very common for patients to be surprised about how well they get treated here. As a doctor, it really makes my job so much more pleasant that patients come here and they are happy with the experience they had.”
The medical center, which merged with Yonkers-based St. John”™s Riverside Hospital last April, is “a little jewel that the community really wanted to keep” according to Denise Mananas, spokesperson for Dobbs Ferry Pavilion of St. John”™s Riverside Hospital.
“Overall, the St. John”™s system has more than 500 doctors, 200 of which work out of this facility,” Mananas said. “The Ashikari Breast Center was opened by Dr. Roy Ashikari in 2002. His goal was to give patients the opportunity for entry to diagnosis within a couple of days.”
The Ashikari Breast Center was recently granted a full three-year accreditation designation by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC). It is the only medical facility in the county to receive the designation.
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Most biopsies are benign and the most common breast issue is pain, Kelemen said.
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“Our center is known for its high-risk patient population,” Kelemen said. “Sometimes they come here because of a genetic predisposition.”
The center specializes in one-step double mastectomy and reconstruction work so that a patient can wake up from the surgery with new breasts. The doctors at Ashikari helped pioneer a nipple-sparing mastectomy with one-stage reconstruction technology.
“Most breast cancer patients who have a mastectomy stay in the hospital for two days,” Kelemen said. “Here, most patients are in and out in a day.”
Patients who have a genetic predisposition can have up to an 85 percent chance of developing breast cancer.
However, “everyone”™s really at risk,” Kelemen said.
“Seventy-five percent of breast cancer patients don”™t have any risk factors,” Kelemen said.
The doctors at the center are also pioneers in intraoperative radiotherapy (radiation therapy), during which an intrabeam device for women who have had a lumpectomy is inserted into the cavity for up to 40 minutes of radiation.
The process can shorten a patient”™s six-and-a-half weeks of daily radiation to five weeks.
“Intraoperative radiotherapy is a significant advancement in our continuing efforts to improve the quality of breast cancer treatment, as well as reduce the impact of these treatments on women”™s lives,” said Dr. Roy H. Ashikari, founder of the Ashikari Breast Center. “This groundbreaking radiation therapy is yet another example of how the Ashikari Breast Center is committed to providing its patients with the most sophisticated breast cancer care.”
The center is also part of an international clinical study that consists of tracking the results of patients who undergo the normal radiation process versus patients who have the intra-operative radiation alone.
“That would be an amazing development,” Kelemen said. “Sometimes women end up choosing a mastectomy over a lumpectomy because they can”™t handle the radiation therapy every day. This would eliminate that.”
