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The Goal of Breast Cancer Surgery
Surgery is the most common treatment for breast cancer. Its goal is to remove the cancer from the breast and from any areas where it may have spread.
Types of Breast Cancer Surgery
The following types of surgery may be used, depending upon the type of breast cancer you have. They’re listed in order from the most often done to the least often done.
You and your doctor can talk about and compare the benefits and risks of each type of surgery. Your doctor can also describe how each treatment will affect the way you’ll look afterward. Each of these types of surgery may or may not require additional types of treatment. When you have another treatment after your first treatment, it’s called adjuvant therapy.
Sentinel Node Biopsy
If breast cancer spreads, it usually spreads first to the lymph nodes under your arms. The sentinel lymph node is the node it reaches first. If the sentinel node doesn’t have cancer, then the rest of your underarm nodes have a very good chance of being cancer-free. Therefore, this kind of biopsy can save you from having the rest of your nodes taken out. Sentinel node biopsy is often followed by breast-conserving surgery or a mastectomy.
Breast-Conserving Surgery
This type of surgery is also called breast-sparing surgery. The surgeon takes out only the lump and some surrounding tissue. There are 2 main types of breast-sparing surgery.
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Lumpectomy, also called a partial mastectomy
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Segmental mastectomy, also called a partial mastectomy or a quadrantectomy
The surgeon removes less tissue for a lumpectomy than for a partial mastectomy.
Mastectomy
For this surgery, the surgeon removes one or both of your breasts. There are 3 main types of mastectomies.
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A total mastectomy removes your whole breast and often the lining over your chest muscle. It’s also called a simple mastectomy.
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A modified radical mastectomy removes your whole breast, most of the lymph nodes under your arm, and often the lining over your chest muscles. Sometimes your doctor has to remove one of your two chest muscles.
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In rare cases, your doctor may do a radical mastectomy. This is also called a Halsted radical mastectomy. For it, the surgeon removes both of your chest muscles as well as those tissues removed in a modified radical mastectomy.
Reconstructive Surgery
This is surgery to rebuild your breast after a mastectomy. You can opt for reconstructive surgery using artificial implants, or you can choose to have surgery that rebuilds your breast using tissue from another part of your body. That tissue can come from your back, abdomen, or buttocks. The 4 main kinds of reconstructive surgery include the following:
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Implants
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Implant with latissimus dorsi reconstruction
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Transverse rectus abdominus muscle (TRAM) flap
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Free flap