HOLLI W. HAYNIE

Receiving an abnormal mammogram is a moment of stark fear for any woman. Even if tests show the abnormality is benign, uncertainty looms in her mind. It's at that time that Christine Mroz, MD, general surgeon and breast care specialist, sees the majority of her patients. Mroz is the medical director of the Mroz-Baier Breast Care Clinic, the clinic she began with her husband, Joseph Baier, in 1995.

"Any woman that comes here (after) an abnormal mammogram or feels a lump, unless she's been tremendously reassured by the person who read the mammogram before she got here, thinks she has breast cancer," said Mroz. "She's full of questions."

Mroz gives answers. Upon walking into the clinic, patients can tell it's different. The lobby looks like a cozy living room with a faux fireplace, plush furniture and photos of family, including Mroz's dogs, and colors throughout the clinic are warm and inviting.

A general surgeon who is certified to interpret mammograms, Mroz has been dealing with breast care since the 1980s. Through the years, she has been able to develop a keen expertise to determine directly from the images if a mass is a cyst, a benign fatty tumor, or cancer. She's quick to say anyone can do it after years of reading x-rays, nevertheless, she adds, "Based on my experience and what I see on the mammogram, even before I look at it under the microscope, I can tell the patient (for instance) that this is probably a stage 1, and she's going to be fine."

If she suspects cancer, Mroz will do the biopsy and discuss treatment options the same day.

"I always preface it by saying that I've been doing it long enough that I know cancer can do crazy things, but this is how I know what is probably going to happen," Mroz adds. "That's reassuring when they leave here."

Mroz came from a farming family and was the first to go to college, where a botany professor told her she'd be a great fit for medical school. She was intrigued by the challenge because she said, "I like to do things not everyone can do."

In 1968, after earning her liberal arts degree in biology with a minor in chemistry, she applied to five medical schools, which, she added, was quite naive of her at the time since all the male graduates were applying to 50 schools. But she got in to SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, where her passion for surgery was born after being given the opportunity to do sutures during a procedure.

"(Being a surgeon) is a gut instinct," she said. "Your problem-solving mentality is you want to fix it right away."

She then set her sights on Mayo Clinic for a surgical residency and was accepted in 1972 as the only woman in her class. When she completed her training in 1978, she became only the fourth woman to complete a surgical residency at Mayo Clinic, and later on became the first female president of the international Mayo Clinic Alumni Association.

Mroz has seen an evolution in breast care since her days at Mayo, from mastectomies to radical mastectomies (which came from research out of Mayo) to lumpectomies to mammograms. Now with today's imaging technologies, even the tiniest flecks of cancer can be detected.

"The whole pattern of breast care was changing at the time I was developing my practice and that's where I gravitated," she said, adding that women also usually gravitate to female surgeons.

The most common means of breast care is typically a multi-disciplinary team of oncologists, radiation oncologists and others who sit in committee and regularly discuss patients. Patients are passed back and forth between their primary doctor and specialists. While each specialist may be doing a top-notch job on their own, said Mroz, if there isn't streamlined communication, people can fall through the cracks and cancer can be missed. This is the greatest fear for a woman facing breast cancer.

It is for that reason the Mroz-Baier clinic is designed quite differently. This comprehensive breast care clinic offers total care in one place – from mammogram and ultrasound to biopsy to surgery.

"I am the same physician that takes her through the surgery, does the operation and does her follow up care, then coordinates her breast cancer care with the oncologists and radiation oncologist," Mroz explained. "The patient has one person who is their advocate throughout (the process)."

Mroz has a staff of two physicians, a nurse practitioner, four technologists and office staff. They've participated in numerous studies and helped develop various biopsy instruments, one of which uses radiofrequency energy. Currently, they are involved in a study on digital mammography with an international company, and another with St. Francis on partial breast radiation.

What Mroz hopes to see in the future is a surgical specialty in breast care, something she's advocated over the years.

"I have been pushing that there should be a specialty and we should have separate board exams to do breast," she said.

Ultimately she would like to see the American colleges of both radiology and surgeons give up the turf battle and recognize the increased potential of physicians who can do radiology and surgery to help patients. Mroz also hopes for eager breast fellows and surgeons who are interested in replicating a program like hers.

"God has given me the talent and experience to continue with this," she said, noting that even though she would like more down time, "I get a lot of positive feedback, so I feel like I have a responsibility to keep going."

When she's not busy being a doctor, she likes to read and indulge in her newest passion, Bikram yoga. The Mroz Baier clinic was inspired by the breast cancer experience and death of Julie Bourgeois Baier, first wife of founder Joseph Baier.