Dr. Rache M. Simmons is a nationally and internationally renowned breast cancer surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center who is recognized for her innovations and contributions in the field of minimally invasive breast cancer surgery. Dr. Simmons is a graduate of Duke University and Duke University Medical School. After her surgical training she did a Breast Oncology Fellowship at NewYork- Presbyterian Hospital where she then was invited to join the surgical faculty. She has been on the surgical faculty since that time and a Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College; the Anne K. and Edwin C. Weiskopf Professor of Surgical Oncology and an Attending Surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She is also the Medical Director of Clinical Research at the Weill Cornell Medical College.
Dr. Simmons is a prolific writer and speaker on her topics of research, which predominantly involve ways to treat breast cancer patients with less invasive and more cosmetically desirable techniques.
For her clinical work she has been selected by the NY Post Best Cancer Doctors in 1998, and Castle Connolly Guide Top Doctors in the New York Metro Area 2000-2010, and Best Doctors in America 2005-2010.
In 2010 Dr. Simmons was recognized as one of New York's SuperDoctors, an honor accorded only 5 percent of physicians in New York. Dr. Simmons serves as Medical Consultant to many consumer media print and broadcast, and she is the author of over 100 scientific articles and book chapters on the surgical treatment of breast cancer, and has been invited to lecture at 96 professional medical conferences. Not only is she a popular scientific lecturer on surgical techniques nationally and internationally, because of her expertise, she is often interviewed by consumer media such as CNN, CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Fox News and ABC Evening News. Her research has been featured in many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine and Ladies Home Journal. She was featured on the Opray Winfrey Show about her pioneering work in the field of breast cancer surgery.
To view Dr. Simmons' interview about 3-D Breast Cancer detection on ABC-TV Good Morning America, please click here abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex.
To view Dr. Simmons' interview about pioneering non-invasive surgical treatment for breast cancer on Fox-TV Good Day New York, click below:
www.myfoxny.com/dpp/good_day_ny/090714_Breast_Cancer_Treatment_Without_Surgery
To view a video of Dr. Simmons talking about the newest surgical treatments for breast cancer, click below:
www.cornellsurgery.org/patients/services/breast-surgery/team.html
Dr. Simmons is very interested exploring new ways to improve the cosmetic appearance of patients who need breast cancer surgery. Obviously the most important goal is to cure the breast cancer but how the patient looks after the surgical treatment has a significant impact on her ability to resume her normal life. Because of the concern to maintain optimal cosmetic results, Dr. Simmons has done extensive research in ways to provide minimally invasive and cosmetically advantageous surgery to her patients. She is a pioneer in the area of skin sparing mastectomy in which she has the largest published series in the New York Metropolitan Area. Dr. Simmons is well known as having invented the Skin and Areola Sparing Mastectomy Operation. The Areola Sparing Mastectomy allows removal of the cancerous breast and nipple and assessment of the lymph nodes by sentinel node biopsy through a small incision within the areola itself. So all of the skin of the breast and the areola are maintained. After immediate reconstruction of the patient's breast and nipple the appearance is very natural, such that in many patients it is difficult to tell she underwent any surgery at all. Dr. Simmons states that she always finds it a complement when her patient's other doctors have to ask during examination "which breast had the mastectomy?"
Dr. Simmons has also made significant contributions to the development of the sentinel lymph node biopsy technique. She was the first to use a blue dye called methylene blue that she found through research to be equally accurate and a safer alternative to the lymphazurine blue dye that had been used earlier. Because of her recommendations, the use of this safer blue dye has changed the practice of many surgeons around the country.
She is the first surgeon in the New York Metropolitan Area to evaluate the use of laser and freezing to destroy both benign breast tumors and breast cancers. Because of her research this technology has become an accepted option for the treatment of benign tumors called fibroadenomas. Her research on this type of ablative therapy as a treatment for breast cancer is being evaluated in a national multicenter trial. This is expected to create a new age for the treatment of breast cancers without surgery in the near future.
Because of her national and international respected reputation as a researcher, teacher and clinical breast cancer surgeon she was elected as the President of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in 1999.
Dr. Simmons in a member of many prestigious surgical societies as listed below:
American Board of Surgery,Surgical Oncology Advisory Council 2005-present
American College of Surgeons, Fellow
Ultrasound Imaging Group, National Faculty 2002-present
American College of Surgeons Oncology Group,Breast Organ Site Committee Co-Chair-2002-present
American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
American Medical Association
American Medical Women's Association
American Society of Breast Surgeons:
Founding Member 1995
Board of Director, 1995-2001
Executive Committee 1997-2001
Secretary/Treasurer 1998-1999
President 1999-2000
Scientific Program Director, Annual Meeting 4/2000
Scientific Planning Committee, Annual Meeting 5/01
Chair, Committee on Breast Specialization 2004-present
Breast Ultrasound Credentialing Committee 2002-present
Education and Research Committee 2001-present
American Society of Breast Surgeons Research Foundation, Board of Directors 2006-present
Association for Academic Surgery
Association of Women Surgeons
Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB),
Institutional Surgical Coordinator 2004-present
International Breast Cancer Intergroup Committee, ACOSOG Representative 2003-present
Medical Society of the State of New York
Nathan A. Womack Surgical Society
New York Metropolitan Breast Cancer Group
New York Physician's Scientific Society
New York Surgical Society
Executive Committee 2004-present
Society of Surgical Oncology:
Scientific Planning Committee Annual Meeting, 2001-2003
National Breast Accreditation Committee, SSO representative
2005
Society of University Surgeons
Dr. Simmons also sits on multiple editorial boards as follows:
The American Journal of Surgery- 1999- present
The Women''s Oncology Review- 2000- 2002
Breast Diseases: A Year Book Quarterly- 1999-present
The Annals of Surgical Oncology-2001- present
The American Journal of Clinical Oncology- 2003 - present
Current Cancer Therapy Reviews- 2004 - present
