mastectomy
Meaning of mastectomy: Removing more tissue does not by itself buy more survival, which is why breast-conserving surgery with radiation matches mastectomy for many early cancers.
Definition of mastectomy
Mastectomy is surgery to remove the breast tissue, performed most often to treat breast cancer and sometimes to lower risk in people with a high inherited chance of developing it. How much is taken varies: some operations remove the breast tissue alone, while others also take the overlying skin, the nipple, or lymph nodes from the armpit.
How mastectomy is built
- mamm/o, mast/o Combining form · Latin and Greek breast
- -ectomy Suffix · Greek surgical removal, excision
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
What are the main types?
| Operation | What is removed |
|---|---|
| Total, or simple | All breast tissue with the nipple and a slice of skin; armpit nodes left alone |
| Skin-sparing | Breast tissue and nipple, keeping the skin envelope for immediate reconstruction |
| Nipple-sparing | Breast tissue only, preserving skin and nipple; suitable when the tumor is well clear of them |
| Modified radical | Total mastectomy plus removal of the armpit lymph nodes |
| Radical (Halsted) | Breast, nodes and the chest wall muscles beneath; now rare |
The historical trend has run steadily toward taking less. The radical operation was standard for generations before trials showed that removing muscle added disfigurement without adding survival.
How does it compare with breast-conserving surgery?
Breast-conserving surgery, also called lumpectomy or wide local excision, removes the tumor with a rim of normal tissue and keeps the rest of the breast, and it is followed by radiation. For many early breast cancer cases the two approaches give comparable long-term survival, so the choice turns on tumor size relative to breast size, whether the disease sits in more than one place, whether radiation is possible, and personal preference. Mastectomy becomes the stronger option for large or multifocal tumors, for inflammatory breast cancer, and when clear margins cannot be achieved.
What follows the operation?
Armpit nodes are usually assessed with a sentinel node biopsy, sampling the first nodes the breast drains into, rather than clearing the whole armpit; the fuller clearance raises the risk of persistent arm swelling. Breast reconstruction may be done at the same sitting or years later, using an implant or the person's own tissue, and some choose no reconstruction at all. When the operation is done as a preventive mastectomy for a high inherited risk, it lowers but does not abolish that risk, because a small amount of breast tissue always remains.
Used in a sentence
The patient underwent mastectomy following the diagnosis of invasive breast cancer.
Good to know
Mastectomy, which removes the breast tissue entirely, is distinguished from breast-conserving surgery, which removes only the tumor and surrounding margin, and the choice between the two depends on tumor characteristics rather than being interchangeable options in every case.
Word origin
Where “mastectomy” comes from
Formed from mast-, from Greek mastos, meaning breast, combined with -ectomy, from Greek ektome, meaning a cutting out.