This content is sponsored by the University of Maryland Capital Region Health.
Breast cancer continues to be a concern in Maryland and especially in Prince George’s County and Southern Maryland. One in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, which makes prevention and early detection extremely important.
“The best thing that you can do for your breast health is get routine breast exams by your physician and get your annual mammogram,” said Dr. Katerina Tsiapali, a breast surgeon and director of the Comprehensive Breast Program at the Cancer Center at University Of Maryland Capital Region Health.
“As women, we’re very busy. We’re taking care of everybody else in the household, and we put ourselves last,” added Michelle Houston, a breast surgery nurse navigator at the Cancer Center in Largo. “It’s just very important for our patients to understand that you have to come first because, if you’re not here or you’re not functioning correctly, how are you going to help your family?”
Tsiapali and Houston spoke to WTOP for our 2025 Get on Top of Your Health series.
When a patient receives a breast cancer diagnosis it can be incredibly scary. But the team approach at the Cancer Center aims to put patients at ease, Tsiapali said.
“Every cancer patient that walks in our door gets discussed at our tumor board, so we get input from all the different specialists, and the main players are the medical oncologist, a surgical oncologist, myself and a radiation oncologist — as well as our social worker and our nutritionist,” she said.
Care, concern, compassion
What’s so special about the Cancer Center’s team approach?
“I always like to have a nice cocoon around my patients,” Tsiapali said. “I want them to feel at home, not to feel stressed when they come to see us, just to feel that it’s a place where they can find support and be themselves.”
Doctors and other medical professionals meet patients where they are with the goal of achieving the solutions that patients seek. All are trained to identify cues as to whether a patient may be having some difficulty, she said. “Is there a barrier that we’re not aware of?”
And this approach extends beyond the patient, Houston explained.
“One thing I love about what we can do is that we’re able to have the families come in,” she said. “When you come into our office and come into our room, there’s a family room first, and then there’s the exam room. The family can ask questions. Patient education is not just educating the patient but educating the entire family, so that they can work together as a unit to get through this.”
Houston works to schedule a patient’s appointments with multiple doctors on the same day for ease of care and so patients don’t have to take an entire day off of work. That can be especially important for those who must travel a far distance, which many had to do before the Largo program was established, Houston said.
“Up until now, patients were having to travel all the way to Baltimore or going to Virginia to get this type of care,” she said. “Now, we have it right there in their community.”
The Cancer Center at University of Maryland Capital Region Health wants to ensure that patients see all their specialists in one day, during one visit, to provide patients with comprehensive treatment and compassionate care at every visit.
“At the end of that day, you leave with all your appointments done and your next steps outlined,” Tsiapali said.
Patients at the Cancer Center also have access to the vast resources of the entire University of Maryland Medical System, which includes the UM Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center in Baltimore. There, patients can access advanced treatments and take part in the latest clinical trials.
Breast cancer and African American women
Breast cancer is a big concern for women of color in Prince George’s County and Southern Maryland. In fact, African American women diagnosed with breast cancer in Prince George’s have a higher mortality rate than white women in the county and women in general across the state.
It’s an issue both Houston and Tsiapali are addressing.
“The majority of our patients at the Cancer Center are African American, so we do have expertise in treating them. It’s a multifactorial process that leads to a diagnosis of more aggressive cancer, such as triple-negative breast cancer,” Tsiapali said. “We also identify certain barriers to care, access to good care and nonparticipation in clinical trials that can sometimes lead to worse outcomes, such as higher mortality.”
In addition, Houston noted that biases in health care sometimes leave patients feeling “like they’re going to be ignored if they have a complaint of something. Just having somewhere where we’re listening to the patient, giving true patient-centered care is amazing to me, and I think it’s going to really help change things and turn things around for the community.”
Keeping tabs on survivors
Just because treatment ends successfully, doesn’t mean medical surveillance stops. The Cancer Center will ensure that patients are set up for mammograms, MRIs and any other necessary follow-up imaging.
“At least every six months, patients will have some type of imaging and contact with us so that we can make sure they’re still doing well,” Houston said.
When active treatment finishes, patients often are at their most vulnerable, Tsiapali said. “A lot of patients, for good reason, feel like, ‘What now? I finished my treatment. How do I make sure this doesn’t come back?'” she said.
Because many risk factors can be modified through lifestyle changes, “we want our patients to be well educated on how to best support themselves in that process,” Tsiapali added.
Houston described it this way: “At the Cancer Center, each patient is coming to a family. We are working together, and we are all family.”
To learn more now about the Cancer Center at UM Capital Region Health — which provides treatment for breast, colon, lung and prostate cancer, as well as other common and rare cancers — please visit its website or call 240-677- 8300. And discover additional tips and tactics to get on top of your health on WTOP.
