Jupiter Medical Center is pleased to announce that Lucy M. De La Cruz, MD, a fellowship-trained breast surgeon, has joined the team of skilled oncology specialists that make up the Jupiter Medical Center Physicians Group. Dr. De La Cruz brings her expertise in surgical oncology as well as her extensive background in research to the hospital’s multidisciplinary team of cancer experts. She will focus on treating patients with breast cancer as well as skin cancer, and serves as Medical Director of Oncologic Research at the Medical Center.
Dr. De La Cruz received her medical degree from Universidad Central Del Este in the Dominican Republic, completed her residency at the University of Miami and went on to a fellowship in breast surgery at the University of Pennsylvania.
Moving to Jupiter was a homecoming for Dr. De La Cruz, as she did her residency in Florida. She explains that Jupiter Medical Center, “is the combination of everything I wanted in a hospital: an academic mindset, paired with a community setting. This kind of hybrid is very unique.”
“Jupiter Medical Center, like the top academic medical institutions across the country, takes a collaborative approach to aggressively treating our patients,” explains Abraham Schwarzberg, MD, Chief of Oncology at Jupiter Medical Center. “Dr. De La Cruz increases the depth and expertise of our team, which elevates the level of care we provide both individually and collectively, and will ultimately improve outcomes.”
Dr. De La Cruz specializes in a number of procedures, including minimally invasive techniques that utilize the latest technological advancements. An example of this kind of procedure is a nipple-sparing mastectomy, which involves a small incision that allows a physician to remove most of the breast tissue, while sparing the breast envelope and nipple. A plastic surgeon can then reconstruct the breast in a way that is aesthetically more similar to the patient’s original state.
