The goal of breast cancer surgery for people with early breast cancer is to remove the entire tumor from the breast. Some of the lymph nodes from the underarm area, called axillary nodes, may also be removed to see if cancer has spread there.

There are 2 main types of surgery for breast cancer: breast conserving surgery, also called lumpectomy, and mastectomy.

Some people have a choice between lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy or mastectomy. These treatments are equally effective in terms of likelihood of recurrence and overall survival.

It’s important to keep in mind that the choice of surgery does not affect whether chemotherapy, hormone therapy, HER2-targeted therapy or other drug therapies are needed. These therapies are given based on the characteristics of the tumor, not the type of surgery.