Alexander Julian Swistel, M.D.

Description

Dr. Swistel graduated from Harvard University and matriculated from the Brown University Alpert School of Medicine. He completed his general surgical residency training at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City and then a two-year surgical oncology fellowship at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center. He subsequently started the first specialized program in breast cancer surgery at St Luke’s, becoming its first Chief of Breast Surgery and Attending Surgeon. In 1996, he was recruited by New York Hospital to develop a similar specialty program in breast cancer surgery. He coordinated efforts to develop the multi-disciplinary Weill Cornell Breast Center which has brought innovation in breast cancer therapy throughout all the disciplines. Recognizing a need to provide patients with an improved quality of life, he started the Oncoplastic Breast Surgery program combining cancer surgery and plastic reconstructive techniques. He presently holds an endowed chair as the Von Maltzahn Associate Clinical Professor of Oncoplastic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and Associate Attending in the Department of Surgery.Dr. Swistel has pioneered many improvements in the delivery of breast cancer care for his patients.  He has been on multiple best doctor lists and is listed in both editions of Who’s Who in America and the World. He is widely quoted as an expert in the field by the media.  He first developed an early protocol using laser guided destruction of small breast tumor to minimize surgical scars. In 1991 he performed the first skin sparing mastectomy in New York. That technique did much to minimize the surgical defect related to standard radical mastectomy and the technique was combined with immediate reconstruction.  In 1986, he established the first Comprehensive Breast Center in Manhattan at the St. Luke’s Hospital.  This served as a model for subsequent Breast Centers throughout the city including the Lauder Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and the present Weill Cornell Breast Center.  Recognizing that minority population sometimes had difficulty in accessing excellent breast care he received a special grant in 1988 from New York state to focus on screening of minority patients.  This program was adopted by the legislature and continues to this day.  He was one of the first physicians in New York to pioneer sentinel lymph node biopsy, a technique for minimizing axillary surgery. Building on his work on skin sparing mastectomy, he was an early adopter of nipple sparing mastectomy and perfected it by utilizing an infra-mammary incision below the breast resulting in the patient having no visible mastectomy scar. His efforts to provide for an improvement in quality of life for breast cancer survivors allowed him to pioneer the young field of oncoplastic breast surgery, combining plastic surgery and cancer surgery to improve self-image after having to face this potentially devastating diagnosis. He has lectured widely on the topic of breast cancer surgery and prevention strategies and runs a high-risk program at Weill Cornell.  He is past President of the New York Metropolitan Breast Cancer Group, which is the oldest and largest regional group of breast cancer specialists in the United States.