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Breast Cancer Treatment: Surgery

Surgical decisions have an impact on the type of therapy you will receive later. Talk to your doctor and ask questions to insure you chose the right treatment for you.

Usually, the first decision in the treatment of breast cancer is which type of surgery to pursue. This decision is made after careful examination of a number of factors, including the following:

• Tumor type: invasive or non-invasive? aggressive? what cell type is it?
• Size of the tumor: size is measured in centimeters and millimeters; one inch equals 2.5 centimeters, 10 millimeters equals one centimeter
• Location of the tumor: where the cancer is located may impact the type of surgical options available to remove it, such as tumors close to the nipple, near the chest wall muscles or near the axillary lymph nodes
• Patient priorities: will reconstruction be considered? how do you feel about each surgical option?
• Cure: which surgery offers the best chance for cure
• Patient's health: impairments in health may affect recovery after surgery or the ability to receive further treatment after surgery
• Smoking history greatly impacts surgical decisions. Your doctor can discuss methods to help you quit smoking. You should stop smoking as soon as possible.
• Cosmetic results

These and other factors are important considerations for making surgical decisions. Surgical decisions have an impact on the type of therapy you will receive later. Some surgeries are followed by radiation therapy, some by chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. Therefore, the surgical decision is made in combination with other specialists who will decide how best to treat your cancer after surgery. These specialists include radiation oncologists, medical oncologists and plastic surgeons.

Types of Breast Cancer Surgery

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