How Do the Doctors Decide What Type of Breast Cancer Surgery is Best for Me?

— -- Question: How do the doctors decide what type of breast cancer surgery is best for me?

Answer: When a physician sees a patient, a woman who's recently diagnosed with breast cancer, we try to develop an individual plan for your procedure. We try to look at what your goals are: are you interested in saving the breast? Do you have evidence of disease throughout that breast or is it a very limited area? have you had any previous history of radiation therapy? any other medical problems? So we look at you individually; we look at what stage your cancer is, how you're built, what might work well for you, and be able to get you a cure -- at the same time, meeting your goals for treating cancer.

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