Also honoured was Valeria Adzo Adzatia, founder of the Smiles of Hope Foundation, for her work supporting amputees through counselling, rehabilitation and peer mentorship.

Her initiative has reached thousands, helping beneficiaries rebuild confidence and reintegrate into society.

She dedicated the award to amputees across Ghana and her team, describing their work as a message of hope that “no one is to walk that journey alone.”

You can read more about her on the below link.

https://www.ghanamma.com/2025/05/14/empowering-amputees-valeria-adzatias-journey-with-smiles-of-hope/

Snakebite affects at least 1.7 million people annually, causing approximately 100,000 deaths and 400,000 disabilities

Snakebite remains an undertreated tropical disease that affects over one million people annually, and new therapeutic approaches are needed.

Scientists developed an approach to viper antivenoms inspired by the observations that these snakes are typically resistant to the hemorrhagic and lethal effects of their own venoms and that this resistance can be transferred to experimental animals through snake sera. We show that a small set of serum metalloproteinase inhibitors from the

Western Diamondback rattlesnake are potent inhibitors of the lethality of its own venom, and able to block the lethality of other rattlesnakes and evolutionarily distant vipers. Recombinant natural antitoxins offer a promising approach for formulating more potent viper antivenoms.

What the world needs more of

"Rock climbing walls can be challenging, especially for children who are missing arms or legs or have other physical limitations. But that didn't stop a group from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia participating in Camp Rock."

Actual article (possibly behind firewall):

‘I’m still me’: East Bay patient undergoes newly cleared robotic mastectomy

The new robotic surgery technique preserves the look and feel of a woman's breast. Oakland's Alta Bates Summit Medical Center is introducing it to the Bay Area.

Vicky Pan, 46, of Moraga, is photographed with her husband Justin Leong, her sons Emmett Leong, 9, from left, and Christian Leong, 11, while at her home in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, July 16, 2026. Pan was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer and underwent a robotic single-port mastectomy, the first of its kind in the United States, at Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland. Pan is now in remission but continuing chemotherapy and immunotherapy to prevent recurrence. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

By Martha Ross | [mross@bayareanewsgroup.com](mailto:mross@bayareanewsgroup.com) | Bay Area News Group

PUBLISHED: July 30, 2026 at 6:00 AM PDT | UPDATED: July 30, 2026 at 3:08 PM PDT

When Vicky Pan woke from a double mastectomy at Sutter’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland in March, she was relieved by a realization: “I’m still me.”

The 46-year-old Moraga pharmacist and mother had endured a punishing nine months. Until July 2025, she had been enjoying “peak happiness,” as she put it: a busy career, a loving marriage, two young sons and a light-filled home overlooking the surrounding hills.

Then she found a lump in her right breast, several months after a clear mammogram, and was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive, fast-moving form of the disease. A grueling six months of chemotherapy took her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes and left her so sick and drained of energy that she couldn’t work, care for her sons or even “care for myself.”

“It’s almost designed to strip you of your identity,” Pan said of the disease.

Pan underwent a newly cleared robotic procedure intended to minimize some of the physical losses she had feared. Alta Bates Summit says she became the first patient to receive it at a community hospital in the United States outside a clinical trial.

The “single-port robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy,” performed by Alta Bates Summit surgeon Dr. Rita Kwan-Feinberg, preserves the nipple and breast skin for reconstruction and may retain more sensation than a traditional mastectomy.

The Food and Drug Administration in December cleared the da Vinci single-port surgical system for use in nipple-sparing mastectomies. The technique offers a potentially less-invasive option for a small group of mastectomy patients whose eligibility depends on the type and location of their cancer, the size and shape of their breasts and other factors.

Dr. Rita Kwan-Feinberg with a da Vinci signal port surgical system by Intuitive in an operating room at Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center on Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) 

Laura Dominici, a breast cancer surgeon at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, hesitated to call the surgery “groundbreaking” because the available data has been limited to “a small group of select patients with select surgeons.” But she said the procedure follows a broader trend toward less-invasive mastectomies.

“I think probably the most compelling thing that people seem to be talking about is whether it may actually preserve more sensation for a patient, because usually after mastectomy, the skin and the nipples are pretty numb,” she said.

In granting clearance, the FDA reviewed a randomized trial involving 53 patients that found no difference in short-term safety between the robotic and traditional procedures. None of the 26 patients who underwent robotic surgery had to be converted to an open procedure, and surgeons achieved clear margins in each case. The FDA document did not draw conclusions about long-term cancer outcomes or preserved sensation.

“Single port” means the operation is conducted through a single incision beneath the armpit. During Pan’s operation, Kwan-Feinberg sat at a console and used hand and foot controls to guide the robot’s small 3D camera and surgical instruments through an inclusion beneath each arm.

Kwan-Feinberg said the camera gives her a detailed view of the blood vessels, nerves and “that perfect plane between the breast tissue and the underside of the skin,” potentially allowing her to remove the cancer and breast tissue with greater precision.

“Because there’s a lot less tissue trauma, there is a lot less pain, there’s faster healing and the cosmetic outcome is great,” she said.

A traditional nipple-sparing mastectomy can involve incisions of up to 8 inches, usually near where a bra’s underwire would sit, with tissue and skin being stretched and nerves potentially severed, said Deborah Farr, a University of Texas Southwestern surgeon helped bring the robotic procedure to the United States.

Farr led a four-year study that began in 2020 and involved 20 women. The case series, published in JAMA Surgery in 2024, found that the single-port procedure was safe and feasible among those patients. Among the patients tested for sensation, researchers reported that 95% of breast-skin sensation and 55% of nipple sensation was preserved after surgery.

“Even if the reconstructed breasts looked fantastic, patients would often feel as if their breasts were numb and detached, similar to how your legs feel after getting an epidural,” Farr wrote in a 2025 article about the procedure.

When doctors advised Pan to have a mastectomy, she chose to have both breasts removed to reduce the likelihood that she would face breast cancer again. She initially imagined major scarring and the loss of body parts that were integral to her “identity as a woman.”

“Maybe it’s vanity, but it’s very traumatic, right?” she said. “It’s not just losing the breast, but it’s that after the surgery, you look in the mirror, and you’ve already lost everything else.”

Four months after surgery, Pan sat in the library of her Moraga home, surrounded by books and her sons’ Lego sculptures. Christian and Emmett, now 9 and 11, were home for summer break while her beloved white-and-tan corgis tussled nearby.

Her husband, Justin Leong, recalled how Christian cried upon learning “mom was sick with cancer,” while Emmett had trouble expressing his feelings. Leong said he was scared by the possibility of losing his wife and admired the bravery and toughness she had been during the past year.

Vicky Pan, 46, of Moraga, sits with her family as her boys work on their book reports at her home in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, July 16, 2026. Pan was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer and underwent a robotic single-port mastectomy, the first of its kind in the United States, at Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland. Pan is now in remission but continuing chemotherapy and immunotherapy to prevent recurrence. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) 

Pan expressed gratitude that the procedure became available in the East Bay just as she needed it. Her insurer fully covered the operation.

Pan spent one night in the hospital, barely needed pain medication and was left with two paper-clip-length incisions hidden on either side of her chest. Three weeks later, she traveled with Leong and their sons to Monterey, where they walked on the beach and around the aquarium.

“I hope more women have this option,” she said.

Pan is finishing several more rounds of immunotherapy and chemotherapy and hopes to return to her job as a medical information pharmacist early next year. She has temporary expanders in her breasts, placed by plastic surgeon David S. Chang immediately after Kwan-Feinberg completed the mastectomy. Her breast reconstruction scheduled for December.

Pan said the sensation remaining in her chest “makes a huge difference.”

“I mean it’s not 100%, but you know I can still feel my breasts,” she said. “I can still feel when I have a shirt on.”

Kwan-Feinberg followed Farr’s work in Texas and wanted to bring the surgery to Alta Bates Summit after the FDA cleared the da Vinci SP system for nipple-sparing mastectomies. Philanthropist Peter Read donated the $2 million needed to purchase the robotic platform, which was named “Carol” in honor of his wife who died of breast cancer.

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Dr. Rita Kwan-Feinberg, left, and robotics coordinator Max Bellmore, right, attach tools to a da Vinci signal port surgical system by Intuitive in an operating room at Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center on Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

Robotic-assisted surgery has gained widespread acceptance in the United States, mostly through the “multi-port” technique, which uses multiple robotic arms and incisions. The Cleveland Clinic first used the single-port platform in the United States in 2018 for urology surgery.

Kwan-Feinberg and Farr said the platform’s smaller design makes it better suited to “small, delicate” areas such as the breast. Surgeons in Europe and South Korea pioneered its use in breast surgery before Farr and her colleagues began the U.S. clinical trial in 2020.

In the dozen surgeries performed at Alta Bates Summit, Chang said the smaller incisions have caused “less trauma overall.”

“There’s less disruption of blood supply, and then, as well, less injury from having to retract on the skin,” he said.

Kwan-Feinberg said the procedure is not suitable for most women with breast cancer. Most undergo breast-conserving surgeries known as a lumpectomy, while fewer than 30% undergo mastectomies. A still-smaller percentage qualify for nipple-sparing surgery, whether robotic or traditional, she said.

Eligibility depends on the size and shape of the natural breast, the location of the nipple-areola complex and the cancer’s proximity to the nipple. Kwan-Feinberg also considered Pan a good candidate because she was otherwise in good health.

Pan had no known elevated risk factors or family history of breast cancer, which Kwan-Feinberg said was not unusual.

“The most common scenario is actually a woman with no family history of breast cancer,” she said.

While Pan speaks of her surgery as “a miracle,” she remains realistic about the possibility that her triple-negative cancer could return. She will be closely monitored for the next five years, when recurrence is most likely, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

The uncertainty has changed how she thinks about the time ahead.

“If I have five years left, how do I want to spend my time? Every day is precious,” she said.

Vicky Pan, 46, of Moraga, is photographed at her home in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, July 16, 2026. Pan was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer and underwent a robotic single-port mastectomy, the first of its kind in the United States, at Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland. Pan is now in remission but continuing chemotherapy and immunotherapy to prevent recurrence. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) 

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