Dr. Vanessa L. Prowler

BACK Affiliations: Lakeland Regional Health
Specialties: General Surgery, Surgical Oncology

Dr. Vanessa Prowler is a fellowship-trained Breast Surgeon at our Hollis Cancer Center. She specializes in the treatment of benign and malignant breast diseases. Her clinical focus includes high-risk breast patients and surgical techniques called “oncoplasty.”

Oncoplastic Surgery: A scar is what a patient sees every time they look in the mirror, reminding them of their cancer diagnosis. Dr. Prowler’s goal is to remove the breast cancer and make it look as though the patient never had breast surgery. This involves limiting incisions to 1 of 3 hidden locations, tissue rearrangement techniques, and in some cases a symmetry procedure on the opposite breast in conjunction with plastic surgery. When the breast looks great, patients have an easier time moving past the diagnosis.

High Risk: Only a small percentage of breast cancers are due to hereditary gene mutations.  The remaining 90% are sporadic. Many women who do not have a family history of breast cancer think they are not at risk. There are many components that make up an individual’s risk of developing breast cancer, including a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, hereditary gene mutations, and the lifetime exposure to estrogen that can affect the propensity to develop a cancer. At Hollis Cancer Center, we can perform genetic testing right in our office.