The chance of a woman having invasive breast cancer in her lifetime is 1 in 8. Now, area women have a new, state-of-the-art facility with a compassionate health care team at the new Nash Breast Care Center, located in the recently constructed medical office building beside Nash Day Hospital on the Nash Health Care campus. The center offers a comprehensive approach to battling breast cancer, with each patient assigned a personal RN Breast Health Navigator Nurse to help guide her through screening, diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Each support team consists of registration personnel, radiologists, mammography technologists, ultrasound technologists, surgeons, and RNs.

Dr. Lisa Nelson-Robinson and Dr. Ivan Peacock are co-medical directors of the Nash Breast Care Center. Dr. Linda Willis is the supervising radiologist for mammography. 

The American Cancer Society estimates that 39,840 American women will die from breast cancer in 2010. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States, and it is also the second leading cause of cancer death in American women.  Statistics also state that the chance of a woman having invasive breast cancer at some point in her life is around 1 in 8. According to 2007 incident rates from the NC Central Cancer Registry, there were 276 cases of breast cancer in Edgecombe County and 435 cases in Nash County.

The Nash Breast Care Center  has:

o        2 mammography rooms

o        1 ultrasound room

o        1 Stereotactic biopsy room

o        1 ultrasound guided biopsy room

o        2 exam rooms.

 Some of the services available at the Nash Breast Care Center include:

•  Digital Mammography
•  High Definition Ultrasound
• Bone Densitometry
•  Ultrasound Biopsy
• Stereotactic Biopsy
• Pathology Specimen Processing
•  RN Breast Health Navigator
• Community Outreach

Patients may be referred to the Nash Breast Care Center by their primary care physician or OB-GYN. Patients may also self-refer. For information, contact the Nash Breast Care Center, at 252-962-6100.

Nash Health Care is a county-owned, not-for-profit health care system comprised of four distinct hospitals on a single campus: Nash General Hospital, Nash Day Hospital, the Bryant T. Aldridge Rehabilitation Center, and Coastal Plain Hospital.

The Nash Breast Care Center held a ribbon cutting and open house for employees and volunteers last week. Pictured are, from left, Michael Bryant, chairman of the Nash Health Care Board of Commissioners; Leslie Hall, chief nursing officer; Beth Pearsall, mammography supervisor; Larry Chewning, president and CEO of Nash Health Care; Dr. Linda Willis, supervising radiologist for mammography; Dr. Lisa Nelson-Robinson, co-medical director of the Nash Breast Care Center; Rosa Brodie, secretary of the Nash Health Care Board of Commissioners, and Dr, Ivan Peacock, co-medical director of the Nash Breast Care Center.