Masses can be benign or malignant. Surgery to remove all or part of the breast and sometimes other tissue. Halsted radical mastectomy removes the breast, skin, nipple, areola, both pectoral muscles, and all axillary lymph nodes on the same side. Modified radical mastectomy removes the breast, skin, nipple, areola, and most of the axillary lymph nodes on the same side, leaving the chest muscles intact. Partial mastectomy removes less than the whole breast, taking only part of the breast in which the cancer occurs and a margin of healthy breast tissue surrounding the tumor.
Subcutaneous mastectomy is surgery to remove internal breast tissue.
The nipple and skin are left intact. Prophylactic mastectomy is a mastectomy done before any evidence of cancer can be found, for the purpose of preventing cancer. This procedure is sometimes performed on women at very high risk of breast cancer. Quadrantectomy is a partial mastectomy in which the quarter of the breast that contains a tumor is removed. Segmental mastectomy is a partial mastectomy.