How is surgery used to treat breast cancer?
Doctors do surgery to cut the cancer away from healthy breast tissue. Surgery is one of the most common treatments for breast cancer. During surgery, the doctor may remove the cancer with a small amount of breast tissue or she may need to remove one or both of your breasts. These two kinds of breast cancer surgery are called lumpectomy and mastectomy. – Lumpectomy is removing the lump, or tumor, and some of the breast tissue around it to treat the cancer. If cancer is found at the edge of the tissue (removed by lumpectomy), the surgeon may need to remove more tissue. It is important to have a clear, cancer-free margin of normal breast tissue to avoid recurrence. – Mastectomy is removing the full breast or both breasts in order to treat the breast cancer. Sometimes during surgery for breast cancer, lymph nodes are taken out as well. Lymph nodes are small bean-shaped areas of tissue that help fight infections in the body. Cancer can spread through the lymph nodes. The doctor checks your
