The Region's Premiere Breast Health Center

The Saint Vincent Women’s Center is proud to be the region’s most responsive provider of breast diagnostics, surgery, and breast health advocacy. We’ve created the region’s most comprehensive, integrated continuum of services. Whether it is providing you the reassurance of fast and efficient annual screening mammography or offering the advocacy, support, medical expertise and technology you need when dealing with the possibility or reality of breast cancer, we truly are your partner in breast health.

Mammography results fast

When it comes to breast cancer concerns, no woman should have to wait.  That's why Saint Vincent is the first in the region to offer mammography results to your physician within 24 hours.

When you experience a suspicious mammogram, the anxiety and concern grows with every passing day. Traditionally, waiting for biopsy takes weeks, and if it is cancer, it can often mean additional agonizing weeks before surgery can be performed. The experts at The Saint Vincent Women’s Center understand the emotional toll it takes to wait for these procedures. That’s why we’ve created a unique process that gives you relief from those weeks of waiting and worrying. The process takes patients from mammogram to biopsy and/or surgery if needed within about two weeks – weeks or even months faster than it can take at other facilities.

Minimally-invasive breast biopsy

When a woman has a suspicious lump or a questionable area on a mammogram, doctors may recommend biopsy.  This does not necessarily mean a woman has to endure surgery. Minimally invasive breast biopsy is fast, it requires no general anesthesia and it’s less stressful for patients. Patients are in and out within a few hours. That’s why Saint Vincent radiologists offer minimally invasive breast biopsy in the comfortable surroundings of the Saint Vincent Women’s Center. With no more than a skin nick, Saint Vincent radiologists are able to biopsy breast abnormalities with a high level of accuracy using this minimally invasive approach. Only local anesthesia is used for the patient’s comfort and convenience. There is also a low potential for complications associated with minimally invasive breast biopsy, and the cost is significantly less than the traditional open surgical procedure. For more information about minimally invasive breast biopsy at the Saint Vincent Women’s Center, call  our Breast Health Navigator at 814-452-7728. Ask your doctor to schedule you for a minimally invasive biopsy by calling the Saint Vincent Women's Center scheduler at 814-452-7764.

At The Saint Vincent Women’s Center, women needing mammograms or other diagnostic procedures, and those diagnosed with breast cancer, have an important new ally. Our Saint Vincent Breast Health Navigator -- a caring and compassionate, specially trained nurse -- guides you from screening mammogram to, if needed, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from breast cancer. The navigator can help you through the process and aid in overcoming any financial, insurance or other barriers.

The Saint Vincent Camisole Caring Program

In the wake of breast cancer surgery, The Saint Vincent Camisole Caring Program offers something supportive, restorative and beautiful. The only program of its kind in the region, Camisole Caring provides attractive post-surgical camisoles with special pockets for drains and temporary breast forms regardless of insurance or ability to pay. It is also supported by a Komen grant.

Battling breast cancer with better detection

Early detection. It’s a woman’s best weapon in the fight against breast cancer. So if you had access to technology capable of detecting breast cancer up to two years earlier than traditional equipment, wouldn’t you use it? Thanks to the Saint Vincent Women’s Center, that advanced technology is available to you.

The R2 ImageChecker®

Saint Vincent Women’s Center radiologists now use a revolutionary new technology called the R2 ImageChecker®, the first FDA-approved computer-aided detection system for screening mammography. It digitizes your mammogram images, scans them for any abnormalities and places markers on anything it finds. It can even locate an abnormality that is barely visible to the human eye.

“Use of the ImageChecker® could result in earlier detection of up to 23.4 percent of the cancers currently detected with screening mammography in those women who had a prior screening mammogram nine to 24 months earlier.” --FDA Approved Claim

Only available at Saint Vincent

Saint Vincent Health System is the only provider in the region to offer this precision technology. Mammograms taken at the Saint Vincent Women’s Center, the Saint Vincent Outpatient Center at Union City and Westfield Memorial Hospital are read with the ImageChecker®.

Remember: You have the right to choose the provider you want to go to for your mammogram. When it’s time for your next mammogram, ask your physician to schedule your appointment at the Women’s Center by calling Saint Vincent Centralized Scheduling at 814-866-4850. Evening hours are available.

Besides this advance in screening mammography, the Women’s Center offers total breast health care with sonography, diagnostic mammography and minimally invasive biopsies all performed on site. For more information about these and other services, please call 814-452-5228.

American Cancer Society Breast Screening Guidelines

Women 20 years of age and older should perform breast self-examination every month. Women ages 20 to 39 should have a physical examination of the breast every three years. Women 40 and older should have a physical examination of the breast every year, as well as an annual mammogram.