About Surgery

If you have breast cancer and are facing surgery, learn more about your options, including the types of both breast-conserving and non-breast-conserving procedures.

Breast-Conserving Surgeries Remove the Cancer But Not the Breast Itself

• Lumpectomy: Surgery to remove a tumor and a small amount of normal tissue around it.
• Partial mastectomy: Surgery to remove the part of the breast that has cancer and some normal tissue around it. This procedure is also called a segmental mastectomy. Patients who are treated with breast-conserving surgery may also have some of the lymph nodes under the arm removed for biopsy – called lymph node dissection. It may be done at the same time as the breast-conserving surgery or after and always through a separate incision.

Other Common Surgeries That Do Not Conserve the Breast

• Total mastectomy: Surgery to remove the whole breast that has cancer – also called a simple mastectomy. Some of the lymph nodes under the arm may be removed for biopsy at the same time as the breast surgery or after through a separate incision.
• Modified radical mastectomy: Surgery to remove the whole breast that has cancer, many of the lymph nodes under the arm, the lining over the chest muscles, and sometimes, part of the chest wall muscles.
• Radical mastectomy: Surgery to remove the breast that has cancer, chest wall muscles under the breast, and all of the lymph nodes under the arm. This procedure is sometimes called a Halsted radical mastectomy.