Breast Pathology

The Breast Pathology Service provides comprehensive diagnostic services on breast diseases to patients at UC San Diego. Pathologists of the Breast Pathology Service perform assessments of breast specimens to provide precise diagnoses, assess the completeness of excisions, and evaluate tissues for phenotypes that may be of prognostic and/or predictive significance. Our team members are board certified pathologists with specific expertise in all aspects of breast pathology, inclusive of non-neoplastic and neoplastic diseases. For cancers, pathologic evaluation includes meticulous radiologic and other clinical-pathologic correlation, detailed macroscopic evaluations of excised tissues, comprehensive assessments of morphologic features and other phenotypes using routine light microscopy, histochemistry, immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization.


The establishment of personalized treatment plans for breast cancer patients requires a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary, collaborative approach, which necessarily includes the accurate diagnosis and phenotyping of breast cancers by pathologists. Our group is a part of the Comprehensive Breast Health Center Care Team at UC San Diego, and as, such we collaborate closely with radiologists, surgeons, radiation oncologists, oncologists, and other team members to ensure the highest accuracy in the patient’s diagnostic work up. Diagnostically challenging cases are routinely discussed at our consensus conferences among breast pathology team members to maximize diagnostic accuracy.

Our Breast Pathology faculty are committed to the training of students, visiting scholars, pathology residents and fellows. The Department of Pathology offers a highly competitive, one-year Gynecologic/Breast pathology fellowship, during which the fellow is actively engaged in our institution’s multidisciplinary approach to patient care. The Breast Pathology Service members are also actively involved in clinically-oriented translational research in which the fellow routinely participates.

We are available for consultation on all aspects of Breast Pathology.

Meet the Faculty:

 

Somaye Y. Zare M.D., Director of Breast Pathology Service

Omonigho Aisagbonhi M.D., Ph.D.

Oluwole Fadare, M.D.

Farnaz Hasteh, M.D.

Hana M. Russo, M.D., Ph.D.​