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. Prophylactic mastectomy is removal of the interior of one or both breasts, before any evidence of cancer can be found, for the purpose of preventing cancer. This procedure is sometimes recommended for women at very high risk of breast cancer, but its efficacy is not proven. Quadrantectomy is a partial mastectomy in which the quarter of the breast that contains tumor is removed. Segmental mastectomy is a partial mastectomy.
Simple mastectomy is a term once used to describe what is now called total mastectomy.
Total mastectomy removes only the breast. Inflammation or infection of the breast. Surgery to lift a breast that sags. See oncologist . A special type of infiltrating breast cancer in which the tumor appears well-defined, with obvious boundaries between tumor tissue and normal tissue.