Vasek and Anna Maria Polak Breast Diagnostic Center Opens in Peninsula Center

Rolling Hills Estates - October 29, 2007 - More than 100 guests witnessed the dedication of the Vasek and Anna Maria Polak Breast Diagnostic Center at 65 Peninsula Center in Rolling Hills Estates during a recent ribbon cutting and reception. This center marks the opening of Torrance Memorial's fourth Polak Breast Diagnostic Center.

The celebration recognized the generosity of the Vasek and Anna Maria Polak Charitable Foundation, Inc. for providing funding to open this center. This newest location provides digital mammography and osteoporosis screenings.

Torrance Memorial also maintains satellite breast diagnostic centers in Manhattan Beach and Carson and its main location in Torrance, where diagnostic services are provided on screening mammograms. As a result, screening mammograms completed at satellite facilities are digitally transferred to the Torrance location and read by the medical center's highly trained and experienced radiology physicians.

More than 1,600 patients who were diagnosed with cancer at Torrance Memorial in 2006. Nearly 25 percent (326) were diagnosed with breast cancer, the highest rate of all cancer types diagnosed at the medical center. The majority of breast cancer cases at Torrance Memorial are diagnosed at an early stage, when chances for survival are the greatest.

The Vasek and Anna Maria Polak Breast Diagnostic Center has been serving the South Bay since 1986. As the area's first free-standing facility dedicated to mammography, it was also the area's first mammography center to be accredited by the American College of Radiology.

As a full-service breast diagnostic center, the Polak Center provides screening and diagnostic digital mammography, ultrasound, and biopsies performed with image-guidance by ultrasound and mammography. Free training in breast self examination is available.

Torrance Memorial Medical Center is a 377-bed, nonprofit, community medical center. For information about the Vasek and Ann Maria Polak Breast Diagnostic Center, visit www.TorranceMemorial.org or call the Polak Breast Diagnostic Center at 310-517-4709.