Rita Mukhtar

Dr. Rita Mukhtar specializes in breast surgery and general surgery for urgent conditions. For her patients with breast cancer, she offers expertise in total skin-sparing mastectomies, breast conservation, wire localization surgery (used to show the location of tissue requiring biopsy) and sentinel lymph node biopsy (used to see if cancer has spread).

Mukhtar conducts research on breast cancer genetics and risk reduction. She also specifically studies lobular breast cancer (a type that begins in the milk-producing glands) and ductal carcinoma in situ (early breast cancer that has not spread beyond the milk ducts).

While attending medical school at UCSF, Mukhtar received a fellowship from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to conduct research on the inflammatory response in sepsis (a life-threatening condition that can develop from infection). She won a resident research award for this work. She remained at UCSF for a residency in general surgery and a research fellowship, funded by the California Breast Cancer Research Program, focusing on the role of inflammatory cells in breast cancer outcomes. She then completed a fellowship in breast cancer surgery while serving as a clinical instructor in general surgery.