Surgery
Surgery is the most common treatment for breast cancer. There are several types of surgery. (See pictures below.) Your doctor can explain each type, discuss and compare the benefits and risks, and describe how each will change the way you look:
- Breast-sparing surgery: An operation to remove the cancer but not the breast is breast-sparing surgery. It is also called breast-conserving surgery, lumpectomy, segmental mastectomy, and partial mastectomy. Sometimes an excisional biopsy serves as a lumpectomy because the surgeon removes the whole lump.
The surgeon often removes the underarm lymph nodes as well. A separate incision is made. This procedure is called an axillary lymph node dissection. It shows whether cancer cells have entered the lymphatic system.
After breast-sparing surgery, most women receive radiation therapy to the breast. This treatment destroys cancer cells that may remain in the breast.
- Mastectomy: An operation to remove the breast (or as much of the breast tissue as possible) is a mastectomy. In most cases, the surgeon also removes lymph nodes under the arm. Some women have radiation therapy after surgery.
Studies have found equal survival rates for breast-sparing surgery (with radiation therapy) and mastectomy for Stage I and Stage II breast cancer.
Sentinel lymph node biopsy is a new method of checking for cancer cells in the lymph nodes. A surgeon removes fewer lymph nodes, which causes fewer side effects. (If the doctor finds cancer cells in the axillary lymph nodes, an axillary lymph node dissection usually is done.) Information about ongoing studies of sentinel lymph node biopsy is in the section on "The Promise of Cancer Research." These studies will learn the lasting effects of removing fewer lymph nodes.
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