A true story of Trail blazing and Life saving
By Daphne Ortiz
While everyone is talking about the latest presidential debate, there is a doctor focusing on preserving women’s bodies and saving lives. Known by his patients as The Lone Ranger, I first met Dr. Philip Bretz in 2008 through a friend. It was his research in the area of breast cancer tumors that initially caught my attention, not to mention he was born and raised in Forest Glen, Illinois. But I could have never predicted that the very research I would
continue to
learn about,
would end
up saving
my life eight
years later in
a 20-minute
office visit.
Dr. Bretz is a
medical doctor
and founder of
Visionary Breast Centers in LaQuinta, California, whose mantra is “to preserve mind, body and spirit.” He has refined the approach to diagnosing and treating breast cancer by developing a personalized lifelong surveillance program for his patients. Bretz offers a personalized genetics assessment to predict the risk of breast cancer and when that risk will likely manifest within ten years during a woman’s lifetime. He uses multiple non-radiation diagnostic modalities, among them Modified Military Digital Infrared, to detect ultra-small breast cancers (about 4mm) before they can metastasize. Via a cryoablation system, Bretz can kill breast cancer tumors in a 20-minute outpatient procedure, many times avoiding surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. With methods
both safe and
successful, Bretz IS
changing the way
we handle certain
types of breast
cancer. But it hasn’t
been easy and
where there are
‘power in numbers’
in the medical
community, there is not always consensus. Bretz has made it his patriotic duty to continue his work so that women can have more options.
The Lone Ranger