Mastectomy

Mastectomy, surgical removal of all or part of a woman's breast when cancer has been detected there. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy may form part of the treatment after surgery. In simple mastectomy, only the breast tissue is removed. In radical mastectomy, muscles surrounding the breast and nearby lymph nodes are removed as well. Some physicians advocate a less radical procedure, when possible, called lumpectomy in which only the cancerous regions of the breast are removed. This procedure is usually accompanied by radiation therapy. Lumpectomy avoids the physical and psychological trauma of complete breast removal, but there is a risk that all the cancer sites have not been removed. In many mastectomy cases the breast can be reconstructed by plastic surgery, through implants and other techniques. See Cancer.