Massachusetts General Hospital

Biography

Dr. Michelle Specht is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Cornell University Medical College. She completed her surgical training at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. She spent two years during her surgical training as a research fellow. Following her residency, Dr. Specht completed a fellowship in Breast Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Since 2004, Dr. Specht has been on staff at Massachusetts General Hospital and Newton Wellesley Hospital and on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.

Dr.Specht's interests are focused on optimizing surgical treatment of breast cancer. She is particularly interested in patient's who must undergo multiple surgeries to complete treatment for their breast cancer. She is actively involved in evaluating new techniques to help minimize multiple operations for the treatment of breast cancer.

ResearchIntra-operative imaging

Margin assessment

Treatment of lymphedema after breast cancer

High-risk patients

Publications

View my most recent publications at PubMed

Coopey SB, Buckley JM, Smith BL, Hughes KS, Gadd MA, Specht MC. Lumpectomy cavity shaved margins do not impact re-excision rates in breast cancer patients. Annals of Surgical Oncology. In press

Coopey SB, Smith BL, Hanson SA, Buckley JM, Hughes KS, Gadd MA, Specht MC. The Safety of Multiple Re-Excisions after Lumpectomy for Breast Cancer. Annals of Surgical Oncology. In press

Specht, M and Black D,* Lee, JM, Dominguez F, Gadd, M, Hughes K, Rafferty E, Smith BL. Detecting Occult Malignancy in Prophylactic Mastectomy: Pre-Operative MRI versus Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy. Ann Surg Oncol. Nov 2007, 2477-84.

Specht MC, Kattan MW, Gonen M, Fey J, Van Zee KJ. Predicting nonsentinel node status after positive sentinel lymph node biopsy for breast cancer: Clinician versus nomogram. Ann Surg Oncol. 12: 654-9, 2005.

Specht MC, Fey J, Borgen P, Cody H. Is the clinically positive axilla in breast cancer really a contraindication to sentinel lymph node biopsy. J Am Coll of Surg. Jan 2005: 200; 10 - 14.