Phillip B. Ley, MD, FACS is a fellowship-trained surgical oncologist focusing the majority of his practice on breast care and the management of breast cancer.

He attended Needville High School in Needville, Texas, where he enjoyed playing football, basketball, discus-throwing and earning multiple Eagle Scout honors trekking through Philmont Scout ranch in New Mexico. The University of Texas in Austin was his next destination, and prior to his graduation in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy with highest honors, he was inducted into the Rho Chi Pharmacy Honor Society, the honor society of Phi Kappa Phi, Mortar Board, and was named a Distinguished College Scholar and served on the Pharmacy Council and in Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity.

Dr. Ley graduated 14th in a class of 168 from Baylor College of Medicine in 1988 and moved to Temple, Texas to complete a residency in general surgery at the Scott & White Clinic/Texas A&M University Health Science Center in 1993, where he served as an Advanced Trauma Life Support Instructor and as Administrative Chief Resident for 1992-1993. He presented papers at the 4th International Conference of Head and Neck Surgeons in San Francisco, California and at the Southeastern Surgical Congress, both involving research on thyroid cancer.

Returning to Houston in 1993, Dr Ley was accepted into the highly competitive Surgical Oncology Fellowship training program at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, a National Institute of Health T32 granted-funded and Society of Surgical Oncology-accredited program. While there, he enrolled in graduate-level courses in molecular biology at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, served as Administrative Fellow in 1995-1996, presented basic science research into apoptotic mechanisms in breast cancer and melanoma at the Society of Surgical Oncology Symposium in Atlanta. He also helped build bridges between the Departments of Surgery at M. D. Anderson and Baylor College of Medicine by serving as an attending surgeon at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston, Texas, one of the nation's original urban Level I Trauma Centers.

Shortly after arriving in Mississippi in 1996, Dr. Ley donated his time as volunteer faculty at the University of Mississippi Medical Center until that department was fully staffed. He introduced a number of pioneering surgical oncology techniques to Mississippi patients, such as intraoperative lymphatic mapping and sentinel node biopsy for melanoma and breast cancer patients, participating in the Sunbelt Melanoma Trial and the University of Louisville Breast Sentinel Lymph Node Registry, serving as a co-author on a number of articles in peer-reviewed surgical journals form the Louisville study.

In addition to these accomplishments, Dr. Ley introduced Neoadjuvant, or "Pre-operative" Chemotherapy to facilitate breast preservation in breast cancer patients, popularized the used of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation in rectal cancer patients to faciliate sphincter preservation and avoidance of permanent colostomy, cryoablation and radiofrequency ablation of hepatic tumors, and recently, oncoplastic breast surgery to improve cosmetic outcome during breast cancer surgery.

Dr. Ley was instrumental in lobbying the state Legislature to authorize matching funding for the Breast and Cervical Screening Program, which allowed use of dormant CDC funding for a program to make breast and cervical cancer screening available for low-income women. This program is now administered by the state Department of Health.

With the indispensable help of Madina Dixon, RN, and R. Scott Runnels, MD, FACS, he lobbied the State Legislature again to authorize the creation of a Breast Cancer Awareness license plate, which has raised thousands of dollars for the Mississippi chapters of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. Now an advisor to the Mississippi affiliate of the American Cancer Society, Dr. Ley has supported the Mississippi Witness Project, and speaks regularly to cancer support groups and health care forums across the state.

Dr. Ley's most recent presentation was at the 2009 symposium of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in San Diego, California, involving a study of an intraoperative molecular assay of sentinel nodes in breast cancer patients to help avoid return trips to the operating room to remove more lymph node-bearing tissue. He also presented similar data at the 2nd Annual Breast Cancer Symposium of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Washington, DC in 2008. Dr. Ley also regularly performs free breast health screening in the central Mississippi area at health fairs organized by Odessah Hawkins, CFNP.

Dr. Ley is board-certified in general surgery (1994) and re-certified in 2003. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a Fellow of the Society of Surgical Oncology, a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a member of the American Society of Breast Surgeons and the American Society of Breast Disease, the Mississippi State Medical Association, and the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Ley participates in the American Society of Breast Surgeons Mastery of Breast Surgery Program and is the Director of Onocology Services at Womans Hospital in Flowood, and also has completed the curriculum of the School of Breast Oncology. He also is Co-Medical Director of the Nutrition Support Service at St. Dominic's/ Jackson Memorial Hospital. He serves as a consultant to Veridex Corporation (A Johnson & Johnson unit), Genomic Health, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Covidien Corporation. He is the only breast surgeon in Mississippi formally trained in an accredited oncology fellowship training program.

Dr. Ley has privileges as an attending surgeon at Mississippi Baptist Hospital, Woman's Hospital in Flowood, St. Dominic's Jackson Memorial Hospital, St. Dominic's Ambulatory Surgery Center and is application-pending at Crossgates/River Oaks Hospital.