Lisa Chapa graduated from McAllen Memorial High School in 2003 and headed to Texas A&M University in College Station.

Chapa did not have a clear vision of her career path but she knew it would lead her back to the Rio Grande Valley.

“Coming back home was always the plan,” she said. “We’re very close, as a family. I love this community. I love the culture. It’s the place I was raised and the place I wanted to get back to.”

Sixteen years later, she did just that, coming home in 2019. After completing her undergraduate degree, Chapa earned her medical degree at Texas A&M. She then completed a general surgery residency at the prestigious Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Temple, Texas. She furthered her training with a breast surgical oncology fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

“I fell in love with surgery during my surgery rotation in medical school,” Chapa said.

She is now the only fellowship-trained breast surgical oncologist south of San Antonio.

Seeing Value Of Ideas

Once she chose surgery, Chapa felt drawn to the multidisciplinary care involved with cancer patients, sharing that all of its nuances and complexities challenged and invigorated her.

Chapa knew she wanted to work at DHR Health in Edinburg. The hospital’s Breast Center of Excellence gives it a distinction she refers to as a “gold seal of approval” from the American College of Surgeons. Hospitals with this distinction must go through the accreditation process every three years.

Four months after her arrival at DHR Health, Chapa accepted the role of director, a position she relinquished in late 2023. Statistics show that men dominate the surgical field.

“Now 20 percent of surgeons are women and that is a huge, huge gain,” she said, with only two percent of surgeons being Latina.

“It took all 16 years of study for me to meet another Latina surgeon,” Chapa said. 

Chapa says DHR Health hears her voice.

“This is one institution that does see my value,” she said. “Any ideas I have, for the patients and for the community, I have gotten the red carpet rolled out to implement them.”

Identifying Risks

One of these ideas led to Chapa developing the framework in establishing the DHR Health Breast Cancer Risk Evaluation Clinic.

After seeing an unusually large number of women in their 20s and 30s receiving a breast-cancer diagnosis, Chapa began investigating and learned that many unknowingly had a strong family history of breast cancer. Chapa began collaborating with the Radiology Department at DHR. 

Chapa gathers family history on patients who have mammograms and ultrasounds. She also asks additional questions, such as the ages patients began their menstrual cycles and when they began menopause. The information goes into an algorithm to determine the patient’s lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. 

The average lifetime risk for women is 12 percent. When this algorithm identifies patients with a 20 percent or higher risk, their names go into a monthly report that goes to the clinic.

“Every month, the list has 160 to 175 names on it,” Chapa said.

Those patients receive invitations to be part of the Breast Cancer Risk Evaluation Clinic, which provides the patients with proactive measures they can take to reduce their risk. Lifestyle choices can reduce the risk of breast-cancer, Chapa said. 

These steps include limiting alcohol consumption to one drink per day, exercising for a total of 150 minutes per week and maintaining a healthy weight. The nurse practitioner also offers genetic testing and counsels women enrolled at the clinic on risk-reducing surgery (elective double mastectomy), which can reduce the risk by up to 90 percent, and risk-reducing medications (taken for five years), which can reduce the risk up to 50 percent.

Incorporating the Latest

Last month, a new law went into effect that requires all mammogram facilities in the United States to notify patients of their breast density. Many facilities, like DHR Health, have been doing this for years, and the information is critical, Chapa said. 

“Breast density refers to the thickness of the person’s breast tissue,” she said.

Age and genetics both play a role. A mammogram is an x-ray that passes through breast tissue to identify abnormalities. Breast cancer is dense, so if a patient’s breast tissue is also dense, the cancer can hide. Knowing the density of their breasts allows women with dense breasts to discuss their supplemental breast imaging options with their physicians.

Chapa had much more to share regarding the latest treatments for breast cancer, the role psychology plays in the treatment of breast cancer, estrogen and body weight, the importance of The Wisdom Study, viable breast-cancer resources, breast cancer in men, and the federal law regarding reconstructive surgery. 

Additional information covers viable breast-cancer resources, breast cancer in men, and the federal law regarding reconstructive surgery. Look for all of this in the November issue of Valley Business Report.