Breast Cancer Surgeon Lori Alfonse, DO, Sees the Future of Health Care in Her Hometown

Allentown, Pa., native Lori Alfonse, DO, Deputy Physician in Chief, Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute, has lots of memories of growing up in the Lehigh Valley. Besides Dorney Park and the wooden roller coaster she still rides today and Dieruff High School Football meetups, she remembers when Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) was one, single building. She looks back with awe at the phases of LVHN’s expansion and how it is continuing today with the combining of LVHN and Jefferson. 

“I’m glad to be a part of the next phase and the next level of care at my hometown health network,” she says. “I’m looking forward to collaborating with my surgical colleagues at Jefferson and to have an even stronger combined oncology team.”

While Dr. Alfonse has fond memories of the area, they are also mixed since her mother, brother and father all suffered from chronic illnesses during her young life. Some people might want to bury those memories, but she found inspiration and determination in that experience. In fact, it’s what motivated her to go into medicine.

“I was often in the hospital as a visitor with my mother and father and I remember seeing how the doctors all worked together to solve this ‘mystery,’” Dr. Alfonse says. “A fan of detective stories, I said to myself, ‘What a great career this would be.’”

The first person in her family to pursue higher education, Dr. Alfonse got herself into college. She focused on pre-med, but also took courses that stirred other interests. Before going to medical school, she dipped her toe into another field and ended up in New York City working for clothing designer Liz Claiborne.

“That job taught me how to communicate with people,” Dr. Alfonse says, adding that it also cemented her perspective. As she traveled around the country selling dresses and sportswear, sometimes people would get upset about the matching of colors. “My feeling was, ‘We are selling clothing here, not saving lives,’” she says. 

From that point, she was driven to become a physician. She recalls having fallen and broken her hand just before taking the Medical College Admission Test. She asked her orthopedic surgeon if he could remove the cast because she had to write two essays in the test. He just said “no,” but didn’t offer an explanation. That left an impression. “I always need a ‘why,’” she says. “I thought I could give patients a better experience than that.”  

Once in medical school, Dr. Alfonse was intrigued by surgeons because operations were a concrete way of helping people. She found a mentor she respected, who told her she would make an excellent breast surgeon. After completing her medical training at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, she completed a fellowship in breast surgery at Bryn Mawr Hospital. The day she learned that LVHN was looking for a fellowship-trained breast surgeon, she felt she had come full circle and left Philadelphia to work in her hometown.

To this day, Dr. Alfonse is known for her friendly approach. She has dispensed with the white coat, wears her favorite designer shoes to work and believes in giving her patients the information they need to feel comfortable. “I can’t do anything about a patient’s diagnosis, but I can do something about the experience,” she says. “I can be there, be honest and be supportive. Sitting and talking together helps them come to terms with what is happening.”

In the future, Dr. Alfonse hopes to start a breast surgery fellowship program for oncology at LVHN. This is so specialized that there would be just one breast fellow trained each year. Until then, she is excited about the expertise of the LVHN and Jefferson teams and considers the combination a nod to the advancement of health care capabilities in the eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania region.

“By pairing with Jefferson, a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center, we will be on the leading edge of the kind of care we already are passionate about,” she says.