Surgeon Donna-Marie Manasseh, MD, and medical oncologist Nina D’Abreo, MD, in Cobble Hill, one of four Brooklyn neighborhoods where Perlmutter Cancer Center offers mammograms, shown to reduce mortality from breast cancer by up to 40 percent.
Credit: Jonathan Kozowyk
Donna-Marie E. Manasseh, MD, who joined ٺƵ Hospital—Brooklyn in January as chief of the Division of Breast Surgery, doesn’t reside in New York City’s most populous borough, but she’s a Brooklynite in every other sense. “My family emigrated from Jamaica when I was 2,” she explains, “and Brooklyn was the first place we called home.”
Dr. Manasseh has cared for Brooklyn residents for the past 12 years, and now she is doing so at Perlmutter Cancer Center, the only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the borough that also has access to a local acute-care hospital. “Brooklyn is a very special place, where people genuinely care about each other,” says Dr. Manasseh. “I call it ‘Brooklyn love.’”
As a clinician who has developed three breast programs over the past two decades and has been a surveyor for the accreditation of breast cancer centers nationwide, Dr. Manasseh is passionate about the importance of early screening and the need to reduce health disparities—both priorities in a borough where the average annual number of breast cancer diagnoses rose by more than 8 percent: from 1,715 between 2011 and 2015 to 1,858 between 2016 and 2020.
ٺƵ’s mission, says Dr. Manasseh, is to provide comprehensive breast cancer care that’s tailored to each patient’s physical, emotional, and social needs. Her partner in this pursuit is Nina D’Abreo, MD, appointed chief of the hematology and medical oncology division, Perlmutter Cancer Center—Sunset Park, in September 2023. Dr. D’Abreo was previously director of breast medical oncology at Perlmutter Cancer Center at ٺƵ Long Island Hematology and Oncology, where she built a model program for breast cancer care.
Recognizing the challenges of providing seamless care in Brooklyn, a melting pot of cultures and languages, Dr. Manasseh and Dr. D’Abreo practice what they call predictive management. “Even top-notch clinical services can only go so far when caring for such a complex, diverse community,” explains Dr. Manasseh. “We try to anticipate the patient’s needs—logistically, financially, and socially—aside from their treatment.”
One valuable resource in achieving this goal is Perlmutter Cancer Center’s Beatrice W. Welters Breast Health Outreach and Navigation Program, directed by breast surgeon Kathie-Ann Joseph, MD, MPH, vice chair for diversity and health equity in the at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and , associate dean for diversity affairs and inclusion and director of diversity in research at Perlmutter Cancer Center. The program’s navigators guide recently diagnosed patients through the healthcare system to eliminate barriers they may encounter. Among their other advocacy efforts, patient navigators help women secure free or low-cost mammograms and help women from underrepresented groups learn about Perlmutter Cancer Center’s nearly 200 open clinical trials institution-wide. “Previously, these populations in Brooklyn didn’t have access to , which are really the backbone of cancer care,” notes Bret J. Rudy, MD, executive vice president and chief of hospital operations at ٺƵ Hospital—Brooklyn.
In a borough where minority communities represent 58 percent of the population, women of color stand to benefit greatly from early screening. For Hispanic women, breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death. Also, according to a 2022 study led by Dr. Joseph, Black women have a 42 percent greater risk of death than White women when diagnosed before age 50, largely because they are more likely to get diagnosed at advanced, harder-to-treat stages. Black women are also twice as likely to be diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease with few treatment options.
Triple-negative breast cancer is the focus of one of five therapeutic clinical trials currently under way at Perlmutter Cancer Center—Sunset Park. The nationwide phase-3 trial will compare the results of a five-drug regimen to a shorter and less risky three-drug course. “We’re the only cancer center in Brooklyn that offers this trial,” notes Dr. D’Abreo, “so if these patients were not willing or able to travel to a hospital in Manhattan, they would not otherwise have access to it.”
Cancer patients treated at ٺƵ’s Brooklyn sites can now benefit from other types of expertise as well. Gynecologic oncologist Emeline M. Aviki, MD, MBA, founder of Perlmutter Cancer Center’s Onco-Fertility Program, the first and only one of its kind in Brooklyn, specializes in fertility preservation for patients of child-bearing age. Cardiologist Michelle Bloom, MD, system director of the Cardio-Oncology Program, manages patients who have developed or are at risk of developing cardiac complications from their treatments. Dermatologist Mario Lacouture, MD, medical director of the Symptom Management Program at Perlmutter Cancer Center at ٺƵ Hospital—Long Island, treats skin-, hair-, and nail-related side effects.
“Breast cancer is particularly difficult for patients because there’s a lot of emotion associated with it,” notes Dr. Manasseh, director of ٺƵ’s Breast Program in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. “Every member of our team has been hired for their emotional quotient—passion paired with compassion. Brooklyn deserves all the love it gives, and we want that love to come through in our care.”
