Surgery

In addition to your surgical procedure, such as a lumpectomy or mastectomy, your doctor may wish to remove and examine lymph nodes to determine whether the cancer has spread and to what extent. Your doctor will use one of two procedures for this, either a sentinel lymph node biopsy/removal or an axillary node dissection. We’ll define these terms […]

There are a few options for breast reconstruction, and which one you use will depend on your age, body type, and treatment plan.

A lumpectomy usually removes the least amount of breast tissue. The surgeon removes the cancer and a small portion or margin of the surrounding tissue, but not the breast itself. Even though the lumpectomy is the least invasive breast cancer surgery, it can still be very effective, and further surgery may not be needed.

In the past, breast cancer surgery often required removing the entire breast, chest wall, and all axillary lymph nodes in a procedure called a radical mastectomy. While radical mastectomies are less common today, there are instances in which this surgery is the best option to treat the cancer.