Dr Henry Oscar
Consultant Radiologist
Co-founder, Luma Women’s Imaging Centre

Breast Cancer Awareness Month may have drawn to a close but remember it is never too late for ladies to start checking themselves as early screening saves lives.

We are delighted to speak to Dr Henry Oscar, Consultant Radiologist and Co-founder at Luma Women’s Imaging Centre (“Luma”), Singapore to understand more of his specialisation in bespoke breast care and women’s imaging.

Share a little about yourself

I enjoy cooking in my pastime. I used to visit markets to find produce for cooking different dishes when I was studying in Australia as eating out was expensive. Cooking served as an avenue for me to destress back then during my university days and this hobby has stuck with me ever since.

As a Consultant Radiologist, what is the most satisfying aspect of your job?

The job entails a combination of diagnostic work and the correlation it has with histopathology especially in a centre like Luma, a one-stop clinic where care is circular.

When abnormalities are found and the lesion can be removed through a biopsy procedure, this helps to find tune my diagnostic skills and I see this as one of the satisfying aspects of my job.

Breast is a superficial organ and we can always obtain a tissue diagnosis be it through a mammogram, ultrasound or MRI in comparison to a liver or brain lesion in which getting a tissue diagnosis will be more challenging and difficult.

What are some challenges that you face on the job?

As breast imaging technology advances so does our ability to detect small cancer at earlier stages and this will give women a better change at survival. However, my challenge is in detection of these early stage cancer. Finding a perfect balance of missing early stage disease versus subjecting patients to biopsies can be difficult as we want to keep false positive as low as possible. Fine tuning breast imaging diagnostic reading skills presents a unique challenge to breast cancer care practice.

In addition, keeping up with the breast imaging advances/technologies can be quite difficult as Luma is a one-stop center on its own and is detached from other tertiary care centers. Thus, I must make it a point to keep myself abreast with the latest advances/technologies as well.

What are some words you would like to offer to women during Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

Like your breasts? Screen them to keep them!