Susan Cheek Needler Breast Center

The Susan Cheek Needler Breast Center offers an integrated network of comprehensive breast health services that are focused on the needs and concerns of all women.  Each of our locations offers a tranquil atmosphere, upgraded amenities and comfortable women's only waiting areas. The first Susan Cheek Needler Breast Center opened in the Powell Cancer Center at Morton Plant Hospital in 2002 and today is still the most comprehensive full-service breast imaging center in the Tampa Bay area. The Susan Cheek Needler Breast Center has since expanded into the North Pinellas and Pasco areas. Every physician at the center is board-certified and fellowship trained in breast imaging. Every nurse and technologist is a specialist in breast health. And every piece of diagnostic equipment is the best of its kind. The staff at the center is committed to providing the most accurate answers in the shortest possible time frame with the compassion every woman deserves. In fact, for diagnostic mammograms, a team member will discuss your test results with you even before you leave. Biopsy results are communicated to both you and your physician, usually within 24-48 hours. To schedule a screening, call (727) 461-8555.

Breast HealthServices We Offer:

• Digital screening mammography - Screening mammography plays a central part in early detection of breast cancers because it can show changes in the breast up to two years before a patient or physician can feel them. Current guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the American Cancer Society (ACS), the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American College of Radiology (ACR) recommend screening mammography every year for women, beginning at age 40. Research has shown that annual mammograms lead to early detection of breast cancers, when they are most curable and breast-conservation therapies are available.
• Digital diagnostic mammography - Diagnostic mammography is used to evaluate a patient with abnormal clinical findings-such as a breast lump or lumps-that have been found by the woman or her doctor. Diagnostic mammography may also be done after an abnormal screening mammography in order to evaluate the area of concern on the screening exam.
• High resolution breast ultrasound - This is typically used to determine if an abnormality is a cyst or solid tumor and, if a solid tumor, whether it has benign or malignant features. This helps the radiologist determine if the next step is routine follow-up, short interval follow-up, aspiration or biopsy.
• Non-surgical breast biopsies - A breast biopsy is the removal of cells or tissue from a suspicious mass. The tissue or cells are then examined under a microscope to check for breast cancer cells. Non-surgical biopsies have proven to be just as accurate as surgical biopsies, but without the scarring and recovery time.
• Breast MRI for high-risk screening and problem-solving studies - A state-of-the-art technology that is able to identify breast tumors that other exams would fail to detect. Based upon detailed cross-sectional high-resolution imaging and the analysis of flow of injected contrast through tissue, breast MRI can identify up to 95 percent of invasive breast cancers.
• MRI-guided breast biopsies - Magnetic resonance imaging is used to help guide the radiologist's instruments to the site of the abnormal growth.
• Molecular breast imaging - A new screening method for breast cancer, identifies tumors in dense tissue that often aren't visible with mammography.

Convenient Locations

We offer five convenient locations where you can receive your annual screening mammogram. All of our screening sites are part of the Susan Cheek Needler network and all offer the same experienced and certified team of technologists performing your exam, as well as the same group of board-certified, fellowship trained radiologists that will interpret your exam.

To schedule a screening at any of our locations, call (727) 461-8555.