Thomas Amburn is a general surgery resident.

The human case for preserving the nipple after mastectomy

Conditions
September 13, 2025

You can live without a nipple, but what if you don’t have to?

Historically, this specialized region of the breast—known as the nipple-areolar complex—was one of the most vital aspects of human anatomy, providing not only nutrition but also immunologic safety for the infant via breastfeeding. The nipple deserves our respect; without it, human society would not exist.

While there are ample supplemental options today that allow people to …

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The human case for preserving the nipple after mastectomy

What’s going on with left-sided breast cancer: a curious phenomenon

Conditions
March 3, 2025

In clinical research, chart review is nearly as familiar as daily functions like walking or breathing. My days are full of identifying missing variables, finding them in the electronic medical records, then documenting them in my meticulously organized data sheets. However, during these chart reviews, my mind tries to find a way to break out of autopilot by looking for trends in the data. That’s how I recently noticed the …

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What’s going on with left-sided breast cancer: a curious phenomenon