What are the options for breast cancer surgical treatment?

Assoc. Prof. Didem Öncel Yakar

Dr Öncel Yakar’s comments

Today, with breast-conserving surgery, only the diseased area is removed with the surrounding tissue and the breast can be preserved. In this case, the patient should receive complementary radiotherapy. While axillary lymph nodes can be preserved in some patients, they are surgically cleared in others. In cases where breast-conserving surgery option is not suitable, all breast tissue and axillary lymph nodes are removed together.

Breast health plays an important role in every woman’s life. This is based on the facts that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and that early diagnosis and treatment significantly increase life expectancy thanks to screening methods. While stricter follow-up and examination protocols are applied in women with certain risk factors, women with no risk factors should also have breast screening regularly for these reasons. Standard breast screening guidelines recommend that women should perform breast self-examination from the age of 20, and additionally, from the age of 40, breast imaging with clinical examination and mammography once a year. In this section, especially in the twenty-fifth year of her profession and as a female surgeon, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Didem Öncel Yakar answers the questions frequently asked by you. We are with you to manage your routine annual scans and appropriate examination-surgery-treatment processes in our practice in Ataşehir.