September 02, 2025

Breast Cancer and the Surgeon's Role in Louisville, KY

When someone's diagnosed with a breast cancer, very frequently, I'm the first person that they'll see along the treatment planning pathway, and I really help lay the groundwork for the next steps, sometimes that's surgery. But frequently, patients have told me that they thought that they had to have a mastectomy. They would have to have a large radical surgery to remove their whole breast to treat this problem. When in reality, a lot of patients are candidates and could proceed with breast conservation or just removing a part of the breast where that breast cancer is and do really well overall with really no significant impact on their overall survival or how long they're gonna live after this diagnosis.

Baptist Health Louisville has a really interesting and unique partnership where all of the specialties providing care for our breast cancer patients are in close communication on a regular basis. Medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology, all of us working together with a focus on breast cancer creates individuals who are really dedicated to serving their patients the best that they can. I think one of the hardest things about breast cancer is the fear that goes along with diagnosis. And with what we know know about breast cancer, being able to answer patients' questions in the beginning about all their treatment options, kind of lay out the roadwork for what this is most likely gonna look like, and assuage a lot of that fear is a great gift that I can give patients, and there's nothing better than being able to give hope at the end of the day. And that makes me feel awesome.

The Surgeon’s Role in Treating Breast Cancer Healthtalk Transcript

Sarah Couch, MD, Breast Surgery
Baptist Health Louisville

Sarah Couch, MD:

When someone's diagnosed with breast cancer, very frequently I'm the first person they'll see along the treatment planning pathway, and I help lay the groundwork for the next steps. Sometimes, that's surgery. Frequently, patients have told me that they thought they had to have a mastectomy; they would have to have a large, radical surgery to remove their whole breast to treat this problem. When in reality, a lot of patients are candidates and could proceed with breast conservation, or just remove a part of the breast where that breast cancer is. [They] do really well overall with no significant impact on their overall survival or how long they're going to live after this diagnosis.

Baptist Health Louisville has an interesting and unique partnership where all the specialties providing care for our breast cancer patients are in close communication on a regular basis. Medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology, all of us working together with a focus on breast cancer creates individuals who are really dedicated to serving their patients the best that they can.

I think one of the hardest things about breast cancer is the fear that goes along with the diagnosis. With what we know about breast cancer, being able to answer patient's questions in the beginning about all their treatment options, lay out the roadwork for what this is most likely going to look like, and assuage a lot of that fear is a great gift I can give patients. There's nothing better than being able to give hope at the end of the day. That makes me feel awesome.