Removing a breast lump

Surgery to remove a breast lump means taking away just the cancer and a border of healthy tissue all around it. The surgeon leaves behind as much healthy breast tissue as possible. The tissue that is removed is sent to a pathologist, who examines it under a microscope. The pathologist checks for cancer cells in the border around the lump.

If it is clear, your report will say there is a 'healthy margin' or 'clear margin'. It is very important to have clear margins with any surgery to remove a cancer. It means that you can be reasonably sure that all the cancer cells have been taken away. So the risk of the cancer coming back in the future is lower.

Surgery to take away a breast lump is called Lumpectomy or Wide Local Excision (WLE).

You may need more surgery after a lumpectomy if there was no 'clear margin' of tissue around the lump, that is an "excision to clear the margins".

The scar on the breast after a wide local excision is usually quite small. And the scar from having lymph nodes removed is under the armpit and so can't be seen from the front.

Another type of breast conserving operation is a quadrantectomy. This operation is not done very often now. It is like a wide local excision, but the surgeon takes away about a quarter of the breast tissue. The result is more noticeable than lumpectomy. So you may want to have breast reconstruction after conservative surgery to rebuild the area that has been removed.

After any of these operations, you are likely to need to have breast radiotherapy to reduce the risk of breast cancer cells returning in the rest of your breast tissue.