A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre yesterday to unveil the new Mary-Jean Mitchell Green biopsy suite.The new “premium ultrasound system” will provide “not only extraordinary images displayed in real time”, but will also allow “ultrasound-guided breast biopsies and cyst drainage, all within the comfort of the newly dedicated biopsy suite”.On hand to cut the ribbon for the official opening was the centre’s Clinical Director Dr David Green. “This is the next logical step for us.“It’s more effective to manage every part of a patient’s diagnosis and we are thrilled to be able to offer this for patients who may initially come to us for a routine mammogram,” he said.An ultrasound-guided breast biopsy is non-surgical and considered to be the “most minimally invasive biopsy method” in which ultrasound imaging is used “to help guide breast specialist radiologists’ instruments to the site of the abnormal growth”.Once the examine is completed, tissue samples are sent to pathologists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The results come back within three to five days.“Waiting for results can make anyone anxious, and now we are able to speed up that process significantly while also providing full diagnostic services within the comfortable surroundings of the Centre,” said Dr Green.The new biopsy suite at Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre is named after Mary-Jean Mitchell Green who died of breast cancer in 1990 at the age of 38, three years after she was diagnosed with cancer.Her husband Peter and two sons Andrew and Alexander donated $50,000 to Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre in 2010 to launch the fundraising campaign toward the purchase of the Centre’s premium ultrasound and biopsy equipment.Executive Director of the Centre, Tara Soares said: “Unveiling these new services for our patients is particularly special for us because of the special connection to the late Mary-Jean Mitchell Green.”Ms Soares stressed that with breast cancer early detection is key, and she expressed gratitude to the Green family for their continued support and generosity to the Centre, “which enabled the purchase technology to improve breast cancer detection and, potentially, save a life”.The Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre is an American College of Radiology (ACR) accredited facility and a registered charity that offers a wide range of clinical services.Those services include Digital Mammography, Ultrasounds, Breast Biopsies and Bone Densitometry.More information is available on the Centre’s website at www.cancer.bm.