{"id":5950,"date":"2026-07-31T18:08:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5950"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:08:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:08:43","slug":"im-still-me-east-bay-patient-undergoes-newly-cleared-robotic-mastectomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5950","title":{"rendered":"‘I\u2019m still me’: East Bay patient undergoes newly cleared robotic mastectomy"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Vicky Pan woke from a double mastectomy at Sutter\u2019s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland in March, she was relieved by a realization: \u201cI\u2019m still me.\u201d<\/p>

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The 46-year-old Moraga pharmacist and mother had endured a punishing nine months. Until July 2025, she had been enjoying \u201cpeak happiness,\u201d as she put it: a busy career, a loving marriage, two young sons and a light-filled home overlooking the surrounding hills.<\/p>\n

Then she found a lump in her right breast, several months after a clear mammogram, and was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive, fast-moving form of the disease. A grueling six months of chemotherapy took her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes and left her so sick and drained of energy that she couldn\u2019t work, care for her sons or even \u201ccare for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost designed to strip you of your identity,\u201d Pan said of the disease.<\/p>\n

Pan underwent a newly cleared robotic procedure intended to minimize some of the physical losses she had feared. Alta Bates Summit says she became the first patient to receive it at a community hospital in the United States outside a clinical trial.<\/p>\n

The \u201csingle-port robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy,\u201d performed by Alta Bates Summit surgeon Dr. Rita Kwan-Feinberg, preserves the nipple and breast skin for reconstruction and may retain more sensation than a traditional mastectomy.<\/p>\n

The Food and Drug Administration in December cleared the da Vinci single-port surgical system for use in nipple-sparing mastectomies. The technique offers a potentially less-invasive option for a small group of mastectomy patients whose eligibility depends on the type and location of their cancer, the size and shape of their breasts and other factors.<\/p>\n

Laura Dominici, a breast cancer surgeon at Boston\u2019s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, hesitated to call the surgery \u201cgroundbreaking\u201d because the available data has been limited to \u201ca small group of select patients with select surgeons.\u201d But she said the procedure follows a broader trend toward less-invasive mastectomies.<\/p>

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\u201cI think probably the most compelling thing that people seem to be talking about is whether it may actually preserve more sensation for a patient, because usually after mastectomy, the skin and the nipples are pretty numb,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In granting clearance, the FDA reviewed a randomized trial involving 53 patients that found no difference in short-term safety between the robotic and traditional procedures. None of the 26 patients who underwent robotic surgery had to be converted to an open procedure, and surgeons achieved clear margins in each case. The FDA document did not draw conclusions about long-term cancer outcomes or preserved sensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSingle port\u201d means the operation is conducted through a single incision beneath the armpit. During Pan\u2019s operation, Kwan-Feinberg sat at a console and used hand and foot controls to guide the robot\u2019s small 3D camera and surgical instruments through an inclusion beneath each arm.<\/p>\n

Kwan-Feinberg said the camera gives her a detailed view of the blood vessels, nerves and \u201cthat perfect plane between the breast tissue and the underside of the skin,\u201d potentially allowing her to remove the cancer and breast tissue with greater precision.<\/p>

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\u201cBecause there\u2019s a lot less tissue trauma, there is a lot less pain, there\u2019s faster healing and the cosmetic outcome is great,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A traditional nipple-sparing mastectomy can involve incisions of up to 8 inches, usually near where a bra\u2019s underwire would sit, with tissue and skin being stretched and nerves potentially severed, said Deborah Farr, a University of Texas Southwestern surgeon helped bring the robotic procedure to the United States.<\/p>\n

Farr led a four-year study that began in 2020 and involved 20 women. The case series, published in JAMA Surgery in 2024, found that the single-port procedure was safe and feasible among those patients. Among the patients tested for sensation, researchers reported that 95% of breast-skin sensation and 55% of nipple sensation was preserved after surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if the reconstructed breasts looked fantastic, patients would often feel as if their breasts were numb and detached, similar to how your legs feel after getting an epidural,\u201d Farr wrote in a 2025 article about the procedure.<\/p>\n

When doctors advised Pan to have a mastectomy, she chose to have both breasts removed to reduce the likelihood that she would face breast cancer again. She initially imagined major scarring and the loss of body parts that were integral to her \u201cidentity as a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it\u2019s vanity, but it\u2019s very traumatic, right?\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just losing the breast, but it\u2019s that after the surgery, you look in the mirror, and you\u2019ve already lost everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four months after surgery, Pan sat in the library of her Moraga home, surrounded by books and her sons\u2019 Lego sculptures. Christian and Emmett, now 9 and 11, were home for summer break while her beloved white-and-tan corgis tussled nearby.<\/p>

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Her husband, Justin Leong, recalled how Christian cried upon learning \u201cmom was sick with cancer,\u201d while Emmett had trouble expressing his feelings. Leong said he was scared by the possibility of losing his wife and admired the bravery and toughness she had been during the past year.<\/p>\n

Pan expressed gratitude that the procedure became available in the East Bay just as she needed it. Her insurer fully covered the operation.\n

Pan spent one night in the hospital, barely needed pain medication and was left with two paper-clip-length incisions hidden on either side of her chest. Three weeks later, she traveled with Leong and their sons to Monterey, where they walked on the beach and around the aquarium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope more women have this option,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pan is finishing several more rounds of immunotherapy and chemotherapy and hopes to return to her job as a medical information pharmacist early next year. She has temporary expanders in her breasts, placed by plastic surgeon David S. Chang immediately after Kwan-Feinberg completed the mastectomy. Her breast reconstruction scheduled for December.<\/p>\n

Pan said the sensation remaining in her chest \u201cmakes a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean it\u2019s not 100%, but you know I can still feel my breasts,\u201d she said. \u201cI can still feel when I have a shirt on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kwan-Feinberg followed Farr\u2019s work in Texas and wanted to bring the surgery to Alta Bates Summit after the FDA cleared the da Vinci SP system for nipple-sparing mastectomies. Philanthropist Peter Read donated the $2 million needed to purchase the robotic platform, which was named \u201cCarol\u201d in honor of his wife who died of breast cancer.<\/p>\n