ONCOLOGY
BY DONNA CRARY
36
Treasure Coast Medical Report
ANTHONY INSWASTY PHOTOS
Dr. Denise Sanderson uses artistry in her surgeries to remove cancerous
tissue, yet prevent excessive scarring and leave good cosmetic results.
wasn’t quite right for her.
“When I got to med school, I said, ‘I’m not going to do
surgery; I’m not going to do psychiatry,’ and I ended up
being a surgeon to the people who need the most TLC,”
Sanderson says. “So, I’m a surgeon-psychiatrist.”
Palliative care oncology became the perfect fit for her.
“Being in the office all day was not the thing for me,”
Sanderson explains. “It wasn’t fulfilling as much as doing
procedures and things like that. But then I also found that
doing procedures for general surgery wasn’t enough for me.
I needed to build relationships. I wanted to really connect
with my patients and do something that felt meaningful.”
In 2006, Sanderson moved to Martin County to open a
practice and has been a sole practitioner for the last 11 years.
GUIDING
HANDS
Breast cancer surgeon
treats the patient’s disease
and the fears it causes
When looking around Dr. Denise Sanderson’s reception
room, it doesn’t take long to see where her
passion lies. The Think Pink sign, the iconic stiletto
heels representing breast cancer walks, and a plaque celebrating
her chairing those fundraisers all point to her desire to
fight breast cancer.
Sanderson, a breast cancer surgery specialist, treats all
diseases of the breast. Her mission, she says, is to put her
patients first, giving them a sense of calm through very trying
circumstances.
“When they come in, I expect that they’re scared — that
they’re here for me to guide them, and that’s my role,” she
says. “My role is to help them to feel like they can have some
control back because cancer takes away your control. And I
like to let them know that it’s OK, and that we have this, and
they’re going to be all right.”
Born in San Antonio, Sanderson says she has wanted to be
a doctor since she was a little girl.
“I had a doctor’s set, and I would play with my grandma,”
she recalls fondly. “My grandma said that I gave the hardest
shots ever. I thought, ‘If it doesn’t hurt, it wasn’t a shot.’ But I
don’t feel like that anymore; a good shot doesn’t hurt.”
While growing up on the south end of San Antonio, Sanderson
says her parents, Andrew and Beatrice Ortega, instilled
in her an appreciation for the finer things in life like art and
cooking classes. They also valued higher education and made
it clear to their children that high school was not the end goal.
“My brother and I were expected to go to college, and they
hoped we’d do something we loved,” she points out.
Sanderson was the first grandchild in her family to graduate
from college. She received a bachelor’s degree from the
University of Dallas, where she majored in chemistry and
minored in printmaking. She earned a medical degree from
Weill Medical College of Cornell University. She completed
her residency at the University of New York and a fellowship
at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,
where she specialized in breast oncology.
SWITCHES SPECIALTIES
She first selected pediatrics as her specialty while attending
medical school, but changed direction after realizing that it >>