About Dr. Stacey Vitiello
Stacey Vitiello, MD is a leading physician in the sub-specialty field of radiology known as Breast Imaging. Her job is to find breast cancer in her patients as early as possible in order to prevent death from the disease, and to minimize breast cancer’s impact on a woman’s life as a whole.
She knows, from both the scientific literature and from experience, that annual screening mammography beginning at age 40 results in significantly fewer women dying of breast cancer. She also knows that mammograms only catch 50% of cancers in women with dense breasts—an unacceptable statistic that is the current reality when a mammogram alone is offered to these women. As a leading voice in the current breast density debate, as well as in the debate over the USPSTF government panel recommendations, she is a passionate and committed advocate for women and their families.
Dr. Vitiello has extensive experience in her field. As a breast-imaging specialist, Dr. Vitiello interprets tests—mammograms, breast ultrasound (also known as sonograms), breast MRIs, and nuclear medicine exams—and performs minimally invasive breast biopsies with a small needle. She speaks to women about the results of their tests, and counsels them regarding their personal risk factors. If she diagnoses breast cancer in a patient, she sets that patient on a course for treatment by surgeons, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists. She partners with her patients to devise an individualized plan for future surveillance, based on a variety of factors.
Dr. Vitiello was born and raised in New Jersey, completing her undergraduate pre-med studies at Georgetown University, before returning to her home state to attend medical school at UMDNJ- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She chose to specialize in Diagnostic Radiology, and trained as a resident at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, where she served as Chief Resident. She then elected to spend an additional year of training as a fellow in Breast Imaging.
In her application for a fellowship position in 1999, she submitted the following essay along with her other credentials to Yale University School of Medicine. This essay reveals why she chose this field.
She was accepted at Yale, and was named as “Fellow of the Year” in the Radiology Department in 2000. Following training, she spent the ensuing years in private practice in New York and New Jersey, balancing her professional career with her family life. She lectures frequently, and has presented to doctors’ groups (including Grand Rounds to the Ob/Gyn Department at NYU) as well as to general audiences on topics in her field. She has published a chapter in Roses’ Breast Cancer, and she is certified by the American Board of Radiology.
Dr. Vitiello is currently on staff at the Montclair Breast Center in Montclair, NJ, (www.montclairbreastcenter.com) a state-of-the-art private practice dedicated to the early detection and treatment of breast cancer.
Through her years of training and experience, in several different practice environments, Dr. Vitiello has seen the women who live, and the ones who are diagnosed too late. She has witnessed how certain savvy women (and their doctors) use current medical technology to their best advantage, and save themselves from developing advanced breast cancer. Her goal is to share what she has gleaned with readers, to give them the information they need in order to become their own advocates for a healthier life.
