Surgery

Surgery is, frequently, the first treatment for breast cancer. 

Its goal is to remove the primary tumor (the initial tumor), to eradicate the disease.

Just 40 years ago, radical mastectomy – a surgery that removes the entire breast, lymph nodes and thoracic (chest) wall muscles – was the standard care for breast cancer.

Today, as medical knowledge has progressed - providing a better understanding of how tumors grow, along with improved surgical techniques - it is possible in a majority of cases to minimize the amount of healthy breast tissue removed and avoid radical mastectomy.

As result, more than half of primary breast cancers (a primary cancer is one that has not spread) are now treated with   conservative surgery  – a technique that only removes the tumor and a small portion of its surrounding tissue. How much of the breast is removed depends on different factors.

Mastectomy (removal of the breast), which today can be approached in different ways, is only advised when the tumor is either very big or already spread throughout the breast, making it impossible to save any healthy mammary tissue.