Broadway shows and live concerts may be hard to come by these days, but if you ask Dr. April Spencer of Dr. Spencer’s Global Breast Health & Wellness Center for a recommendation to “the best show on Earth”, she knows just the place. In fact, she’s a bit of a regular.

“Every minute I get with my patients, I spend in pure awe of them,” says the breast oncology fellowship-trained breast surgeon out of Atlanta, Georgia. “I have a front row seat to witness the most amazing stories unfold every single day. To see the growth of my patients– not just physically– but spiritually and emotionally watching them reclaim their power from cancer, it never gets old.”

It’s the ability to watch her patients grow from “their breast health to their best health,” that motivated her shift from Chief Resident at a Level 1 trauma center to specializing in breast cancer.

“Working in trauma, the only time I ever saw the same patients again was if they were shot again,” she says. “I wanted to develop relationships with my patients and be a part of the solution. In breast cancer, I’m able to truly connect with the whole family and see them through to the other side.”

The potential for what the other side might hold and the latter stage of her rally cry, “treat it, beat it and move on,” is what keeps her specializing in breast cancer.

“There’s an amazing thing that happens when a woman beats cancer,” she says. “They start to think, ‘Listen, if I can get through that, I can do anything.’ And they can.”

For Dr. Spencer, the most important thing physicians can do to help encourage that end-goal mentality is educating their patients on what each and every potential step of the process holds. More specifically, equipping them not only with the necessary stats and literature, but taking the extra time to ensure genuine comprehension of that data so as to salvage as great a sense of control as possible during such an unpredictable time.

“It’s already a vulnerable position to be in,” she says. “People are coming at you from all angles with a whirlwind of facts and figures and treatment plans and you feel absolutely helpless.”

There’s one category in particular that allows Dr. Spencer to sift through the facts and figures herself and focus on her patient’s unique tumor.

“Precision medicine is saving lives,” she says. “DCISionRT gives us a way to literally see into the future. We used to have to make decisions in real time based on the few tangible factors we could see right in front of us, but when you shred all those things away and can really get down to a predictive value of what this patient’s tumor will be doing the next few years, that’s life changing. This technology is saving lives.”

Also high on Dr. Spencer’s list of tools to help her patients regain control over their health journeys involves protecting and maintaining a sense of confidence and identity. Because in technical terms, when you look good, you feel good.

“A lot of women have been made to feel guilty if they even ask about reconstruction or their hair falling out,” she says. “People think they should just be grateful for their lives and not be so vain. But it’s not about vanity, it’s about sanity. It’s about feeling like yourself again– like a strong, beautiful woman– and not just a cancer patient.”

In 2014, she launched Taylor Made, a cosmetic and skin care company with this very goal in mind, fit with its own tribute line for Dr. Spencer’s patients who have passed. Each product in the line, New Life Through Lipstick, is named in honor of one of these young women. A portion of each purchase goes to support other women under 45 who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and may be underinsured, between jobs, in need of childcare and more.

To read more about the life and legacy of each one of these patients, please visit https://www.taylormadecosmetics.online. To contribute to the cause at 20% off, use code “DCISionRT” at checkout.