Breast Service

The world-class Breast Service at the Women's is part of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) Breast Tumour Stream working alongside specialist teams at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. 

Services of the Breast Tumour Stream include diagnosis and management of breast cancer and pre-cancerous diseases through to surgery, reconstruction and medical and radiation oncology.

At the Women’s, we focus on the initial assessment and diagnosis, breast and reconstructive surgery, and supportive care of women through their breast cancer journey.

Specialities

• Breast symptom assessment and management
• Breast imaging
• Breast cancer surgery
• Medical oncology
• Radiation oncology (in association with external providers)
• Supportive care

A breast reconstruction service is available to eligible women after breast cancer diagnosis. This service includes education and support to empower decision making.  

Clinical inclusion

A referral to the Breast Service from a General Practitioner or other doctor. 

Clinical exclusion

Cosmetic breast surgery

Frequency

Monday mornings. 

The Breast Service also has outpatient clinics at The Royal Melbourne Hospital on Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings. Patients referred to the Breast Service will be offered the next available appropriate appointment, which may be at the Women’s or at The Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Triage

Referrals are accepted on the basis of a GPs judgement. It is often appropriate for some imaging to be done prior to referral, including bilateral mammography for most patients over 40, and an ultrasound of a symptomatic area. Many presentations and imaging findings can be managed in general practice without referral to the Breast Service. 

Urgent referrals, where cancer is, or is likely to be the diagnosis, will generally be seen within one week.  Less urgent referrals will generally be seen within one month. Triaging will be made on the basis of the referral, although phone calls are welcome for discussion of specific cases.

Referral

Please complete and fax the Fast Fax Referral form. 

Pre-referral guidelines

Please provide copies of the results of any recent mammography and breast ultrasound, as well as any biopsies. Patients must bring along copies of any mammograms and ultrasounds (films or CDs).

Urgent referrals 

Please mark the fax referral as urgent or call the Breast Fellow or Breast Care Nurse on our direct line.

Appointment

An acknowledgement letter will be sent directly to the patient and the GP will be notified. The patient will then receive a letter with the appointment details.

Follow-up care for women with early breast cancer

The Combined Breast Service of The Royal Women's Hospital and The Royal Melbourne Hospital has introduced a new model of care for women with early breast cancer.

The new model of survivorship care involves:

• Women having a consultation with a Breast Care Nurse to look at ongoing issues and concerns some time after the end of definitive treatment for early breast cancer
• Development of a tailored Follow-Up Care Plan for each woman based on her needs (including a diagnosis and treatment summary, health and wellbeing plan, recommended schedule for follow-up visits, and information on arranging imaging and contacting the Breast Service if required)
• Development of a well-supported shared care arrangement with a woman’s GP - this includes active communication with GPs, agreement on roles and responsibilities, and an easy to follow schedule of follow-up visits with streamlined and rapid  access to specialist care if required
• Enhancing systems to share information between a woman, her GP, other community services and the hospital.

During shared follow-up care, the woman will generally be seen by the hospital Breast Service once per year for to the first five years – this visit includes a mammogram at The Royal Melbourne or Royal Women’s Hospital (at no cost). Alternate appointments are with the GP. Beyond five years, we ask her GP to arrange mammograms - these can be done at RMH to provide continuity or if local imaging is preferred, a disc of the two most recent mammograms can be requested by the woman/GP for comparison.

The Breast Service works in partnership with GPs to improve quality of care and wellbeing following treatment for early breast cancer.

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