Laguna Nigel Breast Cancer and Reconstructive Surgery

Orange County breast cancer surgeon Dr. Jay K. Harness is President of Breast Surgery International and past-President of The American Society of Breast Surgeons. He is a full-time breast cancer surgeon at the St. Joseph Hospital Comprehensive Breast Center in Orange, California, and treats Beuna Park patients from Orange County and beyond at his office located at 1010 West La Veta, Suite 470, in Orange, California 92868.

Practicing surgery in the Laguna Nigel area for 36 years, Dr. Harness specializes in breast and endocrine surgery. In addition, breast cancer expert Dr. Jay Harness offers breast cancer diagnosis, breast cancer patient treatment, breast cancer patient care, breast cancer patient consultation, breast cancer genetic testing, breast cancer radiology, breast cancer radiation therapy, breast cancer chemotherapy, breast cancer surgery, and breast reconstruction.

He is a rarity, an empathetic physician, one who relates to patients as women first rather than surgical candidates.

Dr. Harness assists and treats both Laguna Nigel patients and those from cities throughout the Southern California region from Orange County, Riverside County, San Diego County, Los Angeles County and beyond.

Dr. Harness' Laguna Nigel patients are referred by primary care physicians throughout Southern California, including doctors affiliated with the following hospitals and medical centers:

After graduating from the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Dr. Harness spent his internship and residency in general surgery at the University of Michigan Medical Center. Dr. Harness then remained on the faculty at the University of Michigan and developed the second United States multidisciplinary breast center in 1985. He left the University of Michigan in 1989 and spent two years at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston where he also established a multidisciplinary breast center at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. Subsequently, he came to Oakland, California in 1991 to join the University of California-East Bay Department of Surgery where he was a Professor and Chief of Surgical Oncology at Highland General Hospital. The opportunity to direct his third multidisciplinary breast center in Southern California came in the summer of 2003.

Prior to coming to Southern California, Dr Harness spent 28 years in academic surgery at: the University of Michigan, Tufts University and the University of California, (Davis-East Bay & San Francisco-East Bay). He is currently Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of California, Irvine.

Dr. Harness has been recognized nationally and internationally for his work in breast and endocrine surgery. He is a member of several national and international surgical societies and associations. He has served as Secretary-Treasurer, and President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons and Chair, Board of Directors, of The American Society of Breast Surgeons. He has authored over 80 scientific articles and book chapters and has been the lead editor of 2 textbooks.

His books include Breast Cancer-Collaborative Management and Ultrasound in Surgical Practice: Basic Principles and Clinical Applications, and he has written 21 book chapters, including Expert Consultations in Breast Cancer and Surgical Oncology.

Dr. Harness is currently the Principal Investigator of the NCI (National Cancer Institute) Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) at the St. Joseph Hospital Center for Cancer Prevention and Treatment in Orange, California which began in June 2007.

He is one of the leading clinical research physicians at St. Joseph Hospital.

THE ONCOPLASTIC PHILOSOPHY

of breast cancer surgery

Oncoplastic reconstruction is a term of art within the surgical profession…let's simplify what this means. The surgical treatment of breast cancer over the past century has evolved from extensive disfiguring procedures to less invasive and cosmetically acceptable ones. The development of an oncoplastic approach to patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer means giving equal consideration to the cosmetic [the physical restoration of the breast] outcomes, as well as maximizing oncologic [cancer removing] safety.

Dr. Jay Harness has led the way in formulating the oncoplastic philosophy of breast cancer surgery over the past ten years.

He has performed over 110 nipple-sparing mastectomies, and is one the nation's most experienced surgeons with this breast cancer surgical treatment procedure.

This philosophy creates a vastly improved cosmetic outcome in most cases of breast cancer surgery, and in how the patient looks and feels afterward.

For a woman faced with the fear of disfigurement due to a breast cancer diagnosis, the oncoplastic approach offers not only breast reconstruction, but also emotional reconstruction, as it becomes difficult afterward for others to see evidence of a breast cancer surgery.

Given its uniqueness, few surgeons have as yet embraced this approach to breast cancer surgery, and even fewer are expert at it.

The fear of disfigurement

Many women with a breast cancer diagnosis must face their deepest fear…that of disfigurement.

They want to feel whole, and do not want to lose a part of their femininity.

Femininity may be preserved, by seeking out a breast cancer surgeon who places the oncoplastic philosophy at the center of their approach to breast cancer treatment in the operating room.

The result is also an emotional reconstruction for those initially fearful of losing all or a portion of their breast due to cancer.

Here's how it works:

During lumpectomy surgery, we move healthy tissue inside the breast in such a way that the hole left from the removal of the cancer is filled in so the breast maintains its normal or an improved shape.

During mastectomy surgery, we return the patient to feeling whole by reconstructing the breast with tissue from other parts of the body or a tissue expander, which is later replaced with a permanent implant.

We also use pioneering advances such as nipple-sparing mastectomy with immediate reconstruction.

Less scarring is among the results of an oncoplastic approach, offering a more attractive outcome whether a mastectomy or lumpectomy.