Melanie Crutchfield Whitten, M.D. is a board-certified general surgeon specializing in breast cancer. Soror Melanie is originally from Columbus, Georgia. She earned her undergraduate degree from Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, Alabama. She went on to earn her medical degree from the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, Illinois. Prior to joining Piedmont Physicians, Dr. Crutchfield Whitten completed a breast surgical oncology fellowship at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and Hoag Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles, California.
She is a member of the American Society of Breast Surgeons, the Society of Surgical Oncology and the National Medical Association. She is also a very proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Dr. Crutchfield Whitten enjoys tennis, biking, reading, traveling, and spending time with her family. Dr. Crutchfield Whitten is currently taking care of patients in her hometown of Columbus, GA at Emory-St. Francis Hospital.
Dr. Melanie Crutchfield Whitten has a passion for treating African-American breast cancer patients. In fact, she has even founded an annual breast cancer retreat designed to help support breast cancer survivors and their care givers. The retreat is called Support-Surviving and Thriving Breast Cancer Retreat, and its entire mission is to support breast cancer patients while educating them on how to thrive after surviving breast cancer. Dr. Crutchfield Whitten’s motto for her patients is “your scars tell a story, but it doesn’t have to define your life.”
Black women are more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to be diagnosed at later stages and have the lowest survival at each state of diagnosis. We are also more likely to be diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive subtype that is linked to poorer survival. It is because of this fact, that Dr. Crutchfield Whitten travels across the country speaking to various audiences on the importance of annual mammograms as early detection saves lives. As treatments are more to be successful with early detection, the American Cancer Society recommends women should begin having yearly mammograms by age 45, and then it can change to having mammograms every other year beginning at age 55. Women should have the choice to start screening with yearly mammograms as early as age 40 if they so choose.
Visit her page on the St. Page Francis medical Group website here and be sure to follow her on Instagram @melaniewhittenmd.
