Alexander Bruscke of North Caldwell participates in prize-winning research

2016 Oct 19

The American College of Physicians (ACP) recently notified Alexander Bruscke of North Caldwell, a third-year medical student at The Commonwealth Medical College (TCMC), that a research abstract in which he participated, "Core needle biopsy prior to breast cancer surgery in northeast Pennsylvania: prevalence and barriers to uniform application," was awarded first place in ACP's medical student poster competition for ACP's Pennsylvania eastern region.

The research was conducted under the supervision of TCMC faculty, Jay Bannon, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.S.C.R.S., clinical professor of surgery and Samuel M. Lesko, M.D., M.P.H., professor of family medicine and epidemiology. Core needle biopsy is a minimally invasive procedure for patients with a potential breast cancer diagnosis. It is presently considered a standard of care for patients prior to undergoing breast cancer surgery. The students examined cancer registry records for patients seen at a community hospital in northeastern Pennsylvania and found the incidence of core needle biopsy was lower as compared to Pennsylvania as a whole, but still met the American College of Surgeons standard of 80 percent. The research suggests that the type of health insurance may be one important barrier to the performance of less-invasive biopsies. Mr. Bruscke and fellow TCMC medical stundet, Sydney Huerbin presented a poster of the research at an ACP meeting on Oct. 1.