Breast Cancer Diagnosis: Who Do You See First and What Comes Next?

Mehran Habibi, M.D., MBA, is an internationally recognized surgical breast oncologist with over two decades of clinical and academic leadership. He serves as chief of breast surgery at Baptist Health Herbert Wertheim Cancer Institute and deputy chief of breast surgery for Baptist Health Cancer Care. His clinical expertise includes oncoplastic and nipple-sparing mastectomies, nerve-preserving and risk-reducing procedures, and advanced intraoperative tumor localization and margin assessment technologies.

Before joining Baptist Health, Dr. Habibi held senior leadership roles at Northwell Health, including director of breast surgery at Staten Island University Hospital, regional chief of breast surgery for Northwell’s Western Region and director of international program development for Northwell Cancer Institute. He also served as an associate professor of surgery at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Prior to that, he spent more than 15 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he founded and led the Breast Center at the Bayview Medical Center.

Dr. Habibi’s research program spans surgical innovation, genomics and tumor microenvironment studies. His current investigations include wire-free localization techniques, intraoperative margin assessment tools and studies of tumor tissue mechanics, breast cancer genomics, and the role of the microbiome in breast cancer progression and therapy response. His research has been supported by multiple grants and published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals.

Certified by the American Board of Surgery, Dr. Habibi is a fellow of the American Society of Breast Surgeons and a reviewer for The Breast Journal and JAMA Surgery. He is also an editorial board member of Archives of Breast Cancer.

Dr. Habibi earned his medical degree at Islamic Azad University in Tehran and completed surgical training at Pennsylvania Hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital. He completed a fellowship in complex surgical oncology at the Medical College of Virginia and holds a master’s degree in business administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Outside the operating room, Dr. Habibi is known for his love of photography, swimming and baking—where his pastry skills rival his surgical precision.