KEY SURGICAL TERMS

Your breast cancer surgeon (surgical oncologist) will discuss the type of breast cancer treatment you will need. It may be one or a combination of the procedures listed below. 

Your options for breast reconstruction with depend on the type of treatment you receive.

Lumpectomy: removal of breast cancer tissue - but not the entire breast.

*some women who have a lumpectomy may opt for breast reconstruction if the cancer being removed is in a  "cosmetically sensitive" area (around the nipple, etc.) 

Mastectomy: removal of all breast tissue

• Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy: excision of breast tissue with preservation of the nipple-areolar complex (NAC)
• Skin Sparing ("Simple") Mastectomy: resection of all breast including the NAC, but skin envelope as possible
• Modified Radical Mastectomy: all breast tissue, some overlying skin, pectoralis muscles, and all lymph nodes
• Prophylactic Mastectomy: resection of a breast that does not have a diagnosis of cancer.

Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy: removal of one or a few lymph nodes closest to the cancer. 

Axillary Lymphadenectomy: removal of many lymph nodes in the breast and armpit.

• Also known as a lymph node dissection