Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women in Hawaiʻi and the United States.

If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, the next step will be to find out what stage your cancer is. Doctors will perform a biopsy to learn the stage of your cancer, which helps determine how serious it is and how best to treat it.

Other imaging tests may be needed to get more details, such as how fast the cancer is growing and if it has spread.

A 2024 study by the American Cancer Society revealed that breast cancer is on the rise among Asian American and Pacific Islander women. These women are also more likely to have dense breast tissue. While not abnormal, having dense breast tissue is considered a risk factor for breast cancer because both dense tissue and cancerous growths appear white on mammograms, making it harder to detect breast cancer.

To help address the health needs of our unique island population, the Hawaiʻi Pacific Health Cancer Centers are proud to be leaders in the diagnosis and treatment of women’s cancers in Hawaiʻi.

Our multidisciplinary cancer care teams include doctors, nurses, social workers, technologists, dietitians, and other healthcare professionals who are all dedicated to providing you with quality cancer care and support throughout your cancer journey.

Working in partnership with our Women’s Centers, we offer a wide array of services and preventive health screenings so you can remain at home, close to your support system, for treatment and recovery.

Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women & Children is home the Women's Cancer Center, the only center of its kind in the state dedicated to the prevention and treatment of breast and gynecologic cancers.

Our dedicated care teams strive to provide the highest level of women's cancer care in Hawaiʻi, where a woman's support network of family and friends can be an integral part of the treatment and healing process.

The Dr. James T. Kakuda Cancer Center at Pali Momi Medical Center is the first integrated cancer center of its kind serving Central and West Oʻahu. The center provides a full spectrum of cancer services in one centralized location, allowing patients the convenience of receiving care at a single facility close to home. Dedicated care teams collaborate across specialties, resulting in more efficient care, better outcomes, and an improved patient experience from diagnosis to survivorship.

When breast cancer is treated with surgery, the surgeon tries to remove the cancer while saving as much healthy breast tissue as possible. Magnetic-guided technology is a newer tool that can help with this.

Before surgery, a tiny magnetic “seed” is placed right into the tumor. During surgery, the surgeon uses a special detector to find that seed, so they can go to the right spot and remove the tumor more accurately.

In the past, doctors often used a wire to mark the area. A radiologist placed the wire on the morning of surgery, and part of the wire stuck out of the breast. With a magnetic seed marker, there are no wires. That means the marker can be placed days – or even weeks – before surgery, which can make scheduling a lot easier. It also lowers the chance that a wire could move or come out before surgery.

Because the tumor can be found more precisely, this approach may also lower the chance that a second surgery is needed to remove more tissue.

This advanced approach to removing breast cancer places the incision in a location that is hard to see, so your scar is not visible when it heals.

The Hidden Scar approach can be performed for both a mastectomy and lumpectomy.

In a Hidden Scar Nipple Sparing Mastectomy, all of the breast tissue is removed, but the nipple and skin are not.

In a Hidden Scar Lumpectomy, the tumor and a small portion of healthy tissue surrounding the tumor (margin) are removed. The majority of breast tissue, breast skin, and nipple are preserved.

Both approaches leave you with a less-visible scar. Women who decide this surgery is right for them do not have a higher risk of cancer recurrence than patients who undergo a traditional technique.

Talk with your surgeon to find out if you are eligible for this option.