The Duke Cancer Institute offers a number of surgeries for the treatment of breast cancer.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, the first decision a woman usually must make is which type of surgery to undergo. Your surgeon will help you understand your options and make the best choice, depending on the type and stage of the disease.

The type of surgery selected may influence the need for radiation therapy, but may not influence the decisions about other such as chemotherapy or hormone blocking therapy.

Types of Surgery

• Breast-conserving surgery: An operation to remove the cancer but not the breast itself. One type of breast-conserving surgery is lumpectomy, a surgical procedure to remove a tumor (lump) and a small amount of normal tissue around it. When a lumpectomy is selected, radiation therapy to the breast is often recommended.
• Total mastectomy: A surgical procedure to remove the whole breast that has cancer. This procedure is also called a simple mastectomy. This surgery will leave a flat chest on that side unless reconstruction is chosen.
• Sentinel lymph node biopsy: A technique that injects colored and radioactive tracers near the breast tumor, allowing surgeons to sample only those lymph nodes at highest risk of having tumor spread. If the sentinel node is free of tumor, no further lymph node removal is necessary, sparing most women from the complications of older forms of axillary surgery, such as lymphedema. If the lymph nodes contain cancer, additional removal of nearby lymph nodes is required and is often done at the same surgery (axillary lymph node dissection). Duke was one of the first sites to develop and evaluate this procedure.
• Breast reconstruction: If a patient is going to have a mastectomy, breast reconstruction may be considered. This surgery involves rebuilding the breast mound. State-of-the-art breast reconstruction by Duke’s world-renowned plastic surgeons is available and can be performed at the time of mastectomy, if the patient prefers.

Learn more about reconstructive breast surgery at Duke.

Most breast surgeries at Duke are performed in the Ambulatory Surgery Center, a full-service outpatient surgical facility, which allows women to recover in a hotel-like setting.

Appointments

Learn how to make an appointment at the Duke Cancer Institute.