A little more about
Dr. Peña

I am a gynecologist doctor dedicated to breast problems surgery with emphasis on breast cancer surgery. I have experience of approximately 15 years, where I had the opportunity to perform numerous breast surgeries; In addition, I have been a breast cancer researcher for 6 years at the Mayo Clinic, considered by the U.S. News & World Report as the best hospital in the United States.

After completing my clinical training in breast cancer surgery, helping and supporting many projects both at the private level and at the level of social security in my dear country Costa Rica, I had the opportunity to start a research project in the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. Initially, I was pleased to work in the surgery department of the Clinic with the breast surgeon, Dr. Amy Degnim. I contributed to countless clinical papers, publications, oral presentations in the area. One of the main projects was to try to define a model to stratify or classify patients at risk of breast cancer, in patients diagnosed with atypical ductal hyperplasia. Also, another project was to analyze the immune response of cells in per-malignant lesions of the breast.

This clinical investigation, aroused even more my interest in the study of the immunological mechanisms related to the development of breast cancer, both at the level of the primary tumor, as metastatic. That led me to accept other jobs in the immunology research department of the Mayo Clinic; I worked with Dr. Adam Schrum and currently with Dr. Larry Pease, one of the great teachers of cancer immunology at that medical center. I used my surgical skills in animal models to try to understand the immune response related to breast cancer, and identify possible points that may be subject to new white therapies and use them as complementary treatments to current ones, or new treatments. One of the main projects with Dr. Pease, is the investigation of the mechanisms that regulate breast cancer metastases in animal models, from which we have obtained very interesting and innovative results that we hope in the future, to be able to provide the patients

Finally, and it does not mean that being here is the least important, I am part of a multidisciplinary team, made up of different doctors with specialties, mainly in the context of breast cancer, which, in a comprehensive and joint way , we make the specific decisions of each case to offer the best treatment for each patient at that time.