This procedure may be called a lumpectomy, wide excision, or partial/segmental mastectomy. Your surgeon will remove the tumor, with a small amount of tissue around the tumor. This leaves as much healthy breast tissue as possible. Your lumpectomy may be done as an oncoplastic surgery procedure. This combines breast tumor removal and plastic surgery to optimize the appearance of the breast. A sentinel lymph node biopsy may also be done to check for cancer spread (see Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy). You usually go home the same day. You will usually have radiation after the operation to kill any remaining cancer cells.
There may be:
The recovery time may be up to 1 to 2 weeks.
Additional therapies may include:
See Self-Care and Additional Therapies.
Cancer cells are sometimes found in the tissue around the tumor. If found, additional surgery may be necessary. These are also referred to as "positive margins."
The 10-year survival rates for women with early-stage breast cancer after a lumpectomy with radiation or mastectomy is about 80%.17