Lumpectomy

Breast-conserving surgery or lumpectomy is used as part of the treatment of breast cancer. It is a surgery that removes only cancer-affected parts of the breast and leaves the unaffected portion as much as possible. At times, some surrounding lymph nodes and healthy tissues get removed along with cancer-affected parts. The Breast-conserving surgery is named depending upon how much the tissue has been removed. The names are as follows:

  • Partial mastectomy
  • Lumpectomy
  • Quadrantectomy
  • Segmental mastectomy

Dr. Soumen Das, who is one of the best breast cancer surgeon in Kolkata, says that how much the breast needs to get removed depends on the size of the lump and the location of the same. Your doctor may remove some lymph nodes from your underarm to find out if cancer has affected that area. Usually, Breast-conserving surgery is followed by radiation therapy to destroy the remaining cancer cells that may not have been extracted during the surgery.

Is it as effective as a mastectomy?

Mastectomy is a surgery in which a woman’s entire breast is removed to abolish cancer. Science has shown commendable progress and has come up with BCS (Breast-conserving surgery) in which only the affected part of the breast gets removed, and the remaining healthy part of the breast is preserved. Many people think that BCS is not safe enough and cancer may come back. This is a complete myth, BCS works just like a mastectomy and its capacity to preserve the healthy part of the breast is an add-on facility. Dr. Soumen Das, the most popular doctor for breast cancer surgery in Kolkata, says that women who have undergone the treatment that involves a BCS followed by radiation therapy have the same survival rates as that of a mastectomy.

Breast reconstruction surgery

Before your surgery, the best breast cancer surgeon in Kolkata will let you know how your breast will look after the completion of the surgery. If the affected portion is large, then the shape of your breast will have a visible change. If it looks very different, you may opt for breast reconstruction surgery.

After the surgery

After your breast-conservation surgery, you may face a few side effects that are temporary. You may observe swelling around the area of your surgery. But it will vanish with time. You may also have a little temperature as an after-effect of the surgery. But if these side-effects persist and you feel pain in that part of your breast or observe bleeding, contact your surgeon immediately without fail.