Information on Lumpectomy and Mastectomy procedures
The main method of treatment for a cancerous lump in the breast is to have surgery. What this means is that they will take a part of the breast out that has become cancerous and then sew you back up. What is good about this is that the doctor can remove what is causing the problem and hope that it won’t grow back again. However, what needs to be remembered is that a part of the breast is being removed. That particular tissue of the breast mutated and that is why it is being removed. There are two terms that will be heard when discussing surgery for a breast cancer.
The first term is a lumpectomy. What that term means is that the doctor hopes to go in and remove only the lump. If the doctor can remove only the lump, the breast won’t really be affected. Fortunately for women, the number of lumpectomy surgeries has increased as methods for the surgery have gotten better over time. At one time, if there was a large enough tumor, there was really only one method of removal of the tumor. There wasn’t just a removal of the tumor. There was a complete removal of the breast.
A complete removal of the breast is called a mastectomy. If there are two or more tumors and they are on different parts of the breast, a doctor might decide to remove the breast rather than trying to get the two separate tumors out. Another reason that they might decide to remove the breast rather than go for a lumpectomy is because the tumor might have gotten so large that it is about the size of the breast. If the entire breast is a tumor, it would make more sense to just remove the entire breasts.
The important thing that a doctor must do when they are performing a breast surgery is to ensure that all of the cancerous areas are removed. That means that wherever there is a cancer in the vicinity of the breast, that tissue must be removed. Because of this, there have been cases where parts of the pectoral muscle have been removed. The pectoral muscle is the muscle that is behind the breast. For men, it is the firm part of the muscle where a breast might be, commonly worked out by push ups and the bench press.
The removal of any tumor is highly recommended. Once the doctor has determined that a growth is a tumor, the next thing that the woman should do is go in and determine whether removing it or not is important. The removal of the tumor can potentially aid in the prevention of the spread of the cancer. However, anything can happen and if the tumor gets out of control, the entire breast might have to be removed. The best bet is to get checked often and a mastectomy might not have to occur. However, if that is the only thing that can be done, it is recommended that it is done. With a plastic surgeon, a new breast can be added.