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At the Clinique du Mousseau (Île-de-France - France), the breast disease center welcomes cancer patients. Accompanying, caring, listening, rebuilding... These are the commitments made by a passionate and caring team. Meeting with Najia Pernin, cancer surgeon and gynecologist, who helped create the center 19 years ago.

Ramsay Santé: What does breast cancer management consist of in your clinic?

Najia Pernin: It is a center where care is multidisciplinary, with doctors, oncologists, radiologists from cancer centers. This care is identical to that of other centers, although more personalized. The teams work hand in hand to receive patients within 48 hours and provide them with a complete diagnosis. These short deadlines demonstrate our desire to offer real psychological support in addition to the medical approach. It was also important for us to create a proximity center, allowing patients to limit their movements and benefit from a human approach above all, making them actors of their care.

Ramsay Santé: How do you help your patients to face this ordeal?

N.P.: We believe in the power of transmission and sharing. Parenthesis, the association that we created 12 years ago, organizes patient meetings within the clinic to discuss themes with which each patient can identify ("environment and cancer", "sexuality and cancer" for example) or art therapy events. We want the clinic to become a place where it is possible to put down one's anxieties. Patients can also benefit from complementary care in natural or Chinese medicine, from sessions with our psycho-aesthetician, who offers modeling, hair removal, make-up or varnish sessions, etc. For those who have undergone a mastectomy, we offer organic bamboo bras and accompany them in the acceptance of their scars.

Ramsay Santé: The relationship with the body is therefore at the heart of the treatment...

N.P: In the context of illness, it is indeed fundamental to reinvent the perception of the body. Overcoming cancer implies a physical as well as a psychological reconstruction. The whole challenge of our support is to make the patients actors in their fight against cancer. They may sometimes have difficulty accepting their scars. But we are there to remind them that they are far from diminishing them or making them less beautiful: they are the scars of heroines.