Breast Cancer, Lumpectomy, and Partial Mastectomy If you have breast cancer, a lumpectomy (partial mastectomy) may be an option for you. A surgeon removes the tumor along with some of the breast tissue around it. 

You’ll most likely be able to return home later the same day. Most people chose to have a numbing local anesthesia, rather than be put under with general anesthesia.

Women who have this type of breast cancer surgery usually:

• Have a single tumor that's small -- less than 5 centimeters in diameter
• Have enough tissue so that removing surrounding tissue won’t leave a misshapen breast
• Are medically able to get surgery and follow-up radiation treatment

You typically get radiation after a lumpectomy. That combo treatment helps women live about as long as those who have their whole breast removed, studies show. And you may get better cosmetic results, since the surgeon removes less tissue breast tissue.

But a lumpectomy plus radiation might not be a good option for women who:

• Have multiple tumors in the breast
• Have very large tumors, or cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes or other tissue around the breast
• Have had radiation to the same breast for an earlier breast cancer
• Are pregnant
• Have a tumor where it would be hard to remove enough surrounding tissue

 

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