The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Annual Scientific Congress (ASC), Perth, May 2015
Jane O’Brien and Melanie Walker attended the 2015 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) in Perth, which is the College’s major annual educational activity. Each participating specialty invites eminent authorities as “Distinguished Visitors”, around whom the specialty program is built. The 2015 Breast Surgery college visitors were Fiona MacNeill ,Breast Surgeon, from the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and Eva Weiller-Mithoff, Plastic Surgeon, from the Canniesburn Plastic Surgery Unit in Glascow, where Epworth Breast Service Breast Surgeon Melanie Walker undertook an Oncoplastic Fellowship.
The scientific programme had a very strong focus on Oncoplastic Breast Surgery, which is the adaption of aesthetic and plastic surgical techniques to breast cancer surgery in order to provide both optimal aesthetic appearances and optimal oncologic clearance of the disease. The goal is therefore two-fold: to remove all of the breast cancer and at the same time to achieve the most pleasing cosmetic result. See-
www.melbournebreastcancersurgery.com.au/oncoplastic
Fiona MacNeill established the national oncoplastic training programme in the United Kingdom, and spoke extensively on training and credentialling in Oncoplastic Surgery. Oncoplastic Breast Surgery is, by it’s nature, more complex and technically demanding than standard breast cancer surgery, and therefore requires additional formal training and experience. The Breast Surgeons Society of Australia and New Zealand (BreastSurgANZ) on whose executive Melanie serves, is currently working on guidelines to be recognised as an Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon in Australasia, as there is concern that there may be some breast surgeons who are inappropriately describing themselves as “oncoplastic breast surgeons”, who do not have the appropriate specialist training and experience.
