Surgical removal of the tumor treats the cancer and will help determine the stage of the disease and the need for further treatment. Most patients may choose between breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) or removal of the breast (mastectomy). Lumpectomy is usually followed with radiation therapy to prevent local recurrence. Both options provide the same long-term survival rates for early breast cancer. During this surgery some of the lymph nodes are usually removed to determine if the cancer has spread outside the breast.
At the Ireland Cancer Center the surgeon focuses on the woman’s individual needs with an emphasis on minimally invasive and breast-sparing procedures whenever possible.
Beginning with the diagnosis, the radiologists and surgeons use stereotactic or ultrasound-guided core needle biopsies of suspicious lesions. Other breast-sparing treatment options include wire localization of mammographically-detected abnormalities and the ABBI (advanced breast biopsy instrumentation) technique, both of which can remove the entire lesion.
Ireland Cancer Center physicians are also exploring several methods of evaluating lymph nodes for staging the breast cancer through less invasive procedures. Sentinel lymph node biopsy is a procedure in which the first lymph node that drains the breast area with the cancerous tumor is identified with a blue dye and/or radioactive injection. The surgeon removes this lymph node for examination; if no cancer cells are found, no other lymph nodes need to be removed.