Surgical Treatment Options

Principle of lumpectomy

Lumpectomy Scar

Lumpectomy also known as partial mastectomy removes the cancer with a rim of normal surrounding tissue.

REASONS NOT TO HAVE LUMPECTOMY:

1. If you have two cancers in separate areas of the breast;

2. If you have diffuse or spread-out microcalcifications in your breast, and your doctors cannot ascertain if they are all benign;

3. If, after repeated surgeries, the edge of the excision (or margins of the resection) reveal malignant or cancerous cells;

4. If you are pregnant (certainly in the first trimester, when radiation therapy should not be used);

5. If you have had previous radiation therapy to the chest or breast region for Hodgekin's disease or another cancer, and cannot have radiation again;

6. If your breast is small compared to the size of the cancerous tumor, so that removing the tumor would create a poor cosmetic result;

7. If you have discharge from your nipple that is known to be cancerous, which suggests that the cancer might involve other parts of the breast;

8. If you have a connective-tissue disease, such as scleroderma, which can lead to a poor cosmetic result (and may or may not exacerbate the connective-tissue disease).