Mary Joe Fernandez was one of the top professional tennis players in the United States during the 1990s in both singles and doubles. She won two Grand Slam doubles titles, first at the 1991 Australian Open and then at the 1996 French Open. She also won two Olympic Gold medals in doubles. After retiring in 2000, she became captain of the U.S. Fed Cup team and a television commentator for ESPN.

But after her annual mammogram in 2017, everything changed. She was diagnosed with breast cancer. Fortunately, a friend suggested she call the Dubin Breast Center. Once she arrived and met with the team, she knew she had found the right place for her treatment and recovery.

Mary Joe Fernandez and her husband, Anthony Godsick

“My journey with the Dubin Breast Center has been one of compassion and caring—and of confidence,” she says. “They really have mastered how to make a really difficult time in a woman’s life into something they can get through and have hope.”

Ms. Fernandez was one of two women honored at the Dubin Breast Center Annual Benefit, which celebrated its 12th anniversary. She recounted her story in an emotional video that was presented during the event.

The event was held Monday, December 12, at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York. More than 300 guests attended, and the event raised more than $3 million to support the Dubin Breast Center of The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai Health System.

The second honoree was Hanna Yoko Irie, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology, and Oncological Sciences) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She was honored for her contributions to the field of breast cancer research—most notably her work in triple-negative breast cancer, which is both more aggressive and harder to treat than other types—and for the care she provides to her patients at the Dubin Breast Center.

“We’ve been able to find new genes that promote or drive the growth of a subset of these triple-negative breast cancers,” Dr. Irie says, “targeting specific pathways but also understanding better how we can help boost the immune system.”  Dr. Irie’s contributions to the Center as a physician-scientist were also described in this video.

The event was hosted by Mount Sinai Health System Trustee Eva Andersson-Dubin, MD, who founded the Center, and Elisa Port, MD, FACS, Chief of Breast Surgery and the Center’s Co-Director.

“The mission of the Dubin Breast Center has always been to deliver the most cutting-edge, groundbreaking research combined with the most compassionate care,” says Dr. Port. You can hear more from Dr. Port in a video that was also presented at the gala.

The Dubin Breast Center is also leading the way in early detection and was the first in New York City to offer 3D mammography. The Center performs more than 12,000 mammograms a year.

“Under the direction of Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin and Dr. Elisa Port, the Dubin Breast Center will transform breast cancer research and care for decades to come,” says Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President of the Mount Sinai Health System.

Sofiia Baturina and her doctor, Barry Love, MD

When Russian forces invaded her hometown in Ukraine, 16-year-old Sofiia Baturina had never heard of Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital thousands of miles away.

The young girl, born with a rare heart condition that required life-long care, knew that she had a long, perilous journey ahead. She was often frightened, and winded because of her heart condition. But further care would have to wait until she reached safety with her mom and dad.

After a harrowing journey out of Ukraine, they arrived in Germany. At this point, Sofiia’s older sister, Anna, who lived in New York, made contact with the Staten Island-based Global Medical Relief Fund seeking help. The nonprofit foundation arranged for flights out of Germany, and with one email quickly connected the family to doctors at Mount Sinai, who immediately offered to help.

When Sofiia arrived in New York City with her parents on June 27, she was exhausted. Her hometown of Severodonetsk, a city of about 100,000 residents in northeast Ukraine, was still on her mind. Located about 90 miles from the Russian border, it had been a focal point of the war and the scene of fierce fighting. The city was now in ruins, and she could only guess whether she would ever return.

“My city remains intact only in my memory’s most distant, secluded corners, where it is still young, beautiful, clean, and tidy,” she says.  The loss of her home, her hometown, and her homeland, she says, represents “the greatest loss of my life.”

But it was not her first test.

Sofiia Baturina wearing a traditional Ukrainian wreath.

When the war with Russia broke out, she had already endured a lifetime of surgeries to fix her heart. Born with the heart condition tetralogy of Fallot,  she had three prior heart operations performed in Kyiv—the first when she was 10 months old. While in the hospital preparing for a fourth surgery, she was informed that the operation would be postponed because she had COVID-19. After she recovered, with the war underway, there was no chance of finding a surgeon in Ukraine.

Once at Mount Sinai, Sofiia and her family  finally received some good news: After reviewing the records the family brought and performing additional testing, the team at Mount Sinai felt that Sofiia could be treated with a minimally invasive catheterization procedure rather than surgery. Her doctors in Ukraine had recommended open-heart surgery, which comes with a much longer and harder recovery.

On August 2, Barry Love, MD, Director of the Congenital Cardiac Catheterization Program at the performed a two-hour procedure from a small incision in the groin.

Instead of replacing an old conduit, the narrowed tube between the right heart and the lungs, which had been implanted during a previous surgery, Dr. Love enlarged this critical tube with a series of balloons, and then he placed a metal cage, called a stent, to hold it open. Finally, he telescoped a new valve within the stent and expanded in-place to complete the procedure and allow the blood to again flow freely to the lungs and not leak back to the heart.

“Before we intervened, Sofiia’s right heart pressure was dangerously high,” Dr. Love says.  “After the stent and valve, her right heart pressure is nearly normal. This is an incredibly satisfying result.”

Sofiia was discharged from the hospital the next day. A week later, she was walking without symptoms.  She was excited to tell Dr. Love, “I walked 19,000 steps yesterday and didn’t get tired or have to stop.”

Sofiia and her family are grateful for the warm welcome and expert care they received at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital.

“I’m feeling great!” she says. “My life became more accessible and comfortable after the surgery. I do my best to walk more when I have free time from school. I especially enjoy walking in Central Park.”

Looking back on the toll of the war and the pandemic, she says, “I don’t know how I managed to stay strong. That was my only choice. Letting the fear swallow and paralyze you is the worst thing you can do.”

Sofiia and her father, Andril, hiding out in a basement during their long and arduous escape from Ukraine.

Eva Andersson-Dubin, MD, at podium, with panelist (left to right), David Anderson, MD, FACs, Anna Barbieri, MD, Jeffery Meckanick, MD, Cardinale Smith, MD, PhD, and Joseph Sparano , MD, FACP.

The annual Dubin Breast Center Fact vs. Fiction Luncheon and Symposium is a unique event that provides a forum for Mount Sinai leaders to share key insights about all aspects of breast cancer and healthy living, and to answer questions about emerging trends and the future of women’s health.

More than 130 people attended the event, which was held Wednesday, June 1 at The Harmonie Club in New York City.

The panel discussion was moderated by Elisa Port, MD, FACS, and featured a panel of experts, including David Anderson, MD, FACS; Anna Barbieri, MD; Jeffrey Mechanick, MD; Cardinale Smith, MD, PhD; and Joseph Sparano, MD, FACP. Watch the video here.

In opening remarks, Eva Andersson-Dubin, MD, Trustee of the Mount Sinai Health System and Founder of the Dubin Breast Center, noted how the Center continues to grow.

“Today we see an average of 180 to 200 patients a day, and since the day we opened we have seen 380,000 patients,” she said. “I am so thankful to everyone who works at the Center.”

One patient, Julie McAllister, shared her inspiring story. She was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer six years ago when she was 36 years old.

Julie McAllister tells her story of how the Dubin Breast Center helped her overcome triple negative breast cancer.

“I was in complete shock. I was young, very healthy, active a mother of two children–my youngest was just six months at the time,” she said. “There wasn’t any history of breast cancer in my family. Breast cancer wasn’t even a remote part of my reality. I truly didn’t know if and how I was going to survive. I kept thinking about my kids and how much of their life I was going to be around for, not to mention my husband and I wanted more children.“

Immediately after her initial diagnosis, Shari Brasner, MD, her OBGYN doctor, arranged for additional care. Eventually Ms. McAllister chose Mount Sinai for her treatment and surgery, and she was introduced to Hanna Irie, MD, PhD, who would become her oncologist.

“Dr. Irie was the best and felt like my lifeline during my treatment,” she said. “She was straightforward, incredibly smart, kind, and never made me feel like any of my questions and or fears were silly or unwarranted.” The doctor also helped her find a clinical trial to participate in once she completed her standard treatment.

Ms. McAllister would undergo a number of surgeries, five months of chemotherapy, six weeks of radiation, and then years of ongoing surveillance.

“Throughout all that time, I always felt like I was in the best hands and had the best doctors and nurses looking after me and never felt like a generic cancer patient or a statistic,” she said. “The nurses and staff were extremely warm and knowledgeable. The treatment rooms were comfortable, and I never felt alone.”

She added, “Cancer crushes you physically and mentally. It changes you, puts a fear in you that you never knew existed, and alters the way you think and worry for the rest of your life. But knowing that there are places like the Dubin Breast Center, that there are doctors like the ones I was fortunate enough to call mine, who can and will help treat and cure your cancer, is incredible. I am forever grateful for the treatment and care that I received.”

As a result, she was able to have another child, who was born just four months before the event at The Mount Sinai Hospital, two floors above the Dubin Breast Center.

The Dubin Breast Center at The Tisch Cancer Institute of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was created in 2011 to provide integrated care and services for every phase of breast health and care, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. Clinicians and staff treat each person individually and holistically, with the goal of alleviating anxiety, enriching lives, and supporting emotional and physical well-being. The team works to advance the standard of care with innovative and emerging treatment, while researching life-saving options for the future.