Helen Cappuccino, MD, FACS Helen Cappuccino, MD, FACS

Helen Cappuccino

MD, FACS
Surgical Oncology
Top Doctors 2021

Dr. Cappuccino is a Buffalo Spree Top Doctor! See all of our physicians who made this year's list.

Top Doctors 2021

Specializing In:

Breast Cancer Benign Breast Disease

Special Interests:

Growth and progression of breast carcinoma Therapeutic hypothermia

About Helen Cappuccino

Biography:

I am delighted to be on staff at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. After a decade in private general surgical practice, where I treated many women with breast cancer, I accepted an invitation to join Roswell exclusively in 1999. I felt it gave me an opportunity to do two things that are important to me: develop long-term relationships with my patients, and help them by surgically treating breast cancer. Being at an institute which has a multi-disciplinary approach to cancer, emphasizes state-of-the-art treatment, and offers many resources immediately available to my patients was especially important to me. Also, I like that Roswell gives my patients access to research protocols. As a Board-certified surgeon, I feel it’s important to stay current on the new and effective treatments available to treat breast diseases. I have written chapters in surgical textbooks, and published in scientific journals, speak to patient advocacy groups as I do my best to help assure women screen for breast cancer, understand the disease and are treated properly for breast cancer and other breast issues.

When not in the hospital, my husband Andy (a spine surgeon, medical inventor, and a team doctor for the Buffalo Bills) and I enjoy time with our six children, currently aged 26-40. We both heed the call of civic duty, and I am active on several local non-profit boards, including the University of Buffalo, Western New York Women's Foundation and the Albright Knox Art Gallery. My husband and I have traveled to Africa for medical mission work, and have brought a number of children from abroad here for much-needed surgery they couldn’t get in their home countries. I consider it a privilege to care for patients, and believe strongly that the doctor patient re

Positions

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

  • Assistant Professor of Oncology
  • Breast Surgery Division, Department of Surgical Oncology

Jacobs School Of Medicine And Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo

  • Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery

Background

Education and Training:

  • MD - University at Buffalo School of Medicine (Cum Laude), Buffalo, NY

Residency:

  • Monmouth Medical Center, Long Beach, NJ
  • Jersey Shore Memorial Medical Center, Neptune, NJ
  • Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Board Certification:

  • American Board of Surgery
  • Certified by the American Board of Surgery
  • Basic Life Support
  • Advanced Cardiac Life Support
  • Advanced Trauma Life Support

Professional Memberships:

  • American College of Surgeons - fellow
  • American Medical Association
  • Medical Alumni Association SUNY Buffalo
  • American Society for Clinical Oncology
  • FAA Examiner
  • ASCO - American Society of Clinical Oncology
  • Western New York Chapter ACS- President 2001-2002, President Elect 2000-2001, Secretary 1999-2000, Treasurer 1998-1999, Young Surgeon Representative to National ACS
  • American Medical Association
  • Medical Alumni Association SUNY Buffalo 1988-present, Treasurer 2005-2006, Vice-President 2006-2007, President 2007-2008, emeritus- current
  • Erie County Medical Society

Honors & Awards:

  • 2020, 2021 - Buffalo SpreeTop Doc
  • 2019 - Woman of Influence - Inspiration Award
  • 2019 - Castle Connelly Top Doc
  • 2018 - Castle Connelly Top Docs - Breast Surgery
  • 2017 Business First Health Care Hero
  • 2016 University of Buffalo Volunteer of the Year Award, Medical School
  • May 2014 - Keynote Speaker John S Koplas Memorial Lecture Series
  • 2010 - Western New York Community Leader Healthcare Award- National Federation of Just Communities (WNY chapter)
  • 1995-1997 - AMA Physician Recognition Award
  • 1995 - Positive Physician Project- Selected as one of America’s fifty most positive physicians
What Is Stage 0 Breast Cancer?

Featured on Cancer Talk

What Is Stage 0 Breast Cancer?

Publications

Breast Implant Publications:

  • Evren S, Khoury T, Neppalli V, Cappuccino H, Hernandez-Ilizaliturri FJ, Kumar P. Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL): A Case Report. Am J Case Rep. 2017 May 31;18:605-610. doi: 10.12659/ajcr.903161. PMID: 28559535; PMCID: PMC5460956.

Other Selected Publications:

  • Cappuccino A, Bisson LJ, Carpenter B, Snyder K, Cappuccino H. Systemic Hypothermia as Treatment for an Acute Cervical Spinal Cord Injury in a Professional Football Player: 9-Year Follow-Up. Am J Orthop (Belle Mead NJ). 2017 Mar/Apr;46(2):E79-E82. PMID: 28437499.
  • Gabriel E, Attwood K, Young J, Cappuccino H, Kumar S. Impact of American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z11 on surgical training at an academic cancer center. J Surg Res. 2016 Apr;201(2):266-71. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2015.11.014. Epub 2015 Nov 30. PMID: 27020806; PMCID: PMC5315694.
  • Dietrich WD, Cappuccino A, Cappuccino H. Systemic hypothermia for the treatment of acute cervical spinal cord injury in sports. Curr Sports Med Rep. 2011 Jan-Feb;10(1):50-4. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0b013e318205e0b3. PMID: 21228652.
  • Cappuccino A, Bisson LJ, Carpenter B, Marzo J, Dietrich WD 3rd, Cappuccino H. The use of systemic hypothermia for the treatment of an acute cervical spinal cord injury in a professional football player. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2010 Jan 15;35(2):E57-62. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181b9dc28. PMID: 20081503.
  • Cappuccino H, Stratoulias C, Thompson R, Heliotis T. Foramen of Morgagni: Hernia Diagnosis with Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Contemporary Surgery 1996;48(2):81-88.
  • Cappuccino H, Heliotis T. Pulmonary blastoma as a unique cause of fatal respiratory distress in a newborn. J Pediatr Surg. 1995 Jun;30(6):886-8. doi: 10.1016/0022-3468(95)90773-4. PMID: 7666331.
  • Cappuccino H, Gornish A, Schwartz M, Averbach D. Letter to the Editor of Surgery, accepted for publication.
  • Cappuccino H, Campinile F, Knecht J. Laparoscopy-guided drainage of hepatic abscess. Surg Laparosc Endosc. 1994 Jun;4(3):234-7. PMID: 8044370.
  • Cappuccino H, Cargill S, Ngyuen T. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy: 563 cases at a community teaching hospital and a review of 12,201 cases in the literature. Monmouth Medical Center Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Group. Surg Laparosc Endosc. 1994 Jun;4(3):213-21. PMID: 8044366.
  • Doerr R, Cappuccino H et al. Use of the Falciform Ligament to Repair a Perforated Duodenal Ulcer. Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics. 1990;170(2):167-168.
  • Bernstein Z, Cappuccino A, Cappuccino H. Platelet Aggregation with Spent Media Used to Support Tumor Cell Structures. Blood. 1988; December Supplement.
  • Bernstein Z, Cappuccino A, Cappuccino H. Cessation of Thrombocytopenia with Platelet IgG and IgM. Blood. 1987; December Supplement.
  • Bernstein Z, Cappuccino A, Cappuccino H, Small B. Effect on platelet Aggregation of Serum from Patients with HIV-associated ITP. Blood. 1986; December Supplement.
  • Hess H, Sweeney J. The effect of Warfarin Formulation on Anticoagulation Control. Blood. 1985; December Supplement.
  • PD63-11Art Heals: Does Art therapy help in the recovery of patients after a major oncologic surgery? Lone Z*, Khan H, Steele M, Bizovi J, Elsayed AS, Aldhaam NA, Hussein, Attwood WJK, Davidson R, Cappuccino H, Lin-Hill J, Guru KA, March 2019, The Journal of Urology 201(Supplement 4).
  • Systemic Hypothermia as Treatment for an Acute Cervical Spinal Cord Injury in a Professional Football Player: 9-Year Follow-Up. Cappuccino A, Bisson LJ, Carpenter B, Snyder K, Cappuccino H.Am J Orthop (Belle Mead NJ). 2017 Mar/Apr;46(2):E79-E82
  • Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL): A Case Report.Evren S, Khoury T, Neppalli V, Cappuccino H, Hernandez-Ilizaliturri FJ, Kumar P.Am J Case Rep. 2017 May 31;18:605-610.
  • Impact of American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z11 on surgical training at an academic cancer center. Gabriel E, Attwood K, Young J, Cappuccino H, Kumar S.. J Surg Res. 2016 Apr;201(2):266-71. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2015.11.014. Epub 2015 Nov 30

Textbooks:

Scientific American Textbook of Surgery. 2018 edition. Evaluation of the Benign Breast and Patients at High Risk for Breast Cancer

Scientific American Textbook of Surgery. 2018 edition. Management of Benign Breast Problems

American College of Surgeons Textbook of Surgery. 2013 Edition. Benign Breast Disease Chapter

American College of Surgeons Textbook of Surgery. 2010 Edition. Benign Breast Disease Chapter

Other Medical Publications:


Being a Woman Surgeon:60 Women Share Their Stories- author two selections (pub April 2015) The Best of Medicine: Doctors, Patients, and the Covenant of Caring,

The Best Medicine: Stories of Doctors and Patients who Care for Each Other, Positive Doctors in America