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Lumpectomy

Lumpectomy

This operation saves as much of your breast as possible by removing only the lump plus a surrounding area of normal tissue. Many women can have lumpectomy – often followed by radiation therapy – instead of mastectomy, and in most cases survival rates for both operations are similar.

Lumpectomy may not be an option if a tumor is very large, deep within your breast, or if you have already had radiation therapy, have two or more widely separated areas of cancer in the same breast, have a connective tissue disease that makes you sensitive to radiation, or if you have inflammatory breast cancer. If you have a large tumor but still want to consider the possibility of lumpectomy, chemotherapy before surgery may be an option to shrink the tumor and make you eligible for the procedure.

In general, lumpectomy is almost always followed by radiation therapy to destroy any remaining cancer cells. But when very small, noninvasive cancers are involved, some studies question the role and benefits of radiation therapy – especially for older women. These studies haven’t shown that lumpectomy plus radiation prolongs a woman’s life any better than does lumpectomy alone.

Page last updated on Sep. 26, 2008