Indications for and Techniques of Limited Breast Surgery

The role of mastectomy in breast cancer is local control of the tumor on the chest wall — nothing more. The extent of the mastectomy is governed by the size, location, and clinical behavior of the breast lesion. The distressing and untreatable aspect of breast cancer is the 8–12 years it grows in the breast prior to becoming detectable. It is control of the cells shed into the bloodstream and lymphatics during these years, not the amount of tissue removed at mastectomy, that limits the successful treatment of breast cancer.