Breast Cancer Surgery

Under­stand­ing Breast Can­cer Surgery Options

Breast can­cer surgery is a cor­ner­stone treat­ment for many breast can­cer diag­noses. This page explores two main sur­gi­cal approach­es: mas­tec­to­my and lumpectomy.

Sur­gi­cal Options:

• Mas­tec­to­my: This surgery involves remov­ing the entire breast. There are dif­fer­ent types of mas­tec­tomies, includ­ing tra­di­tion­al mas­tec­to­my, skin-spar­ing mas­tec­to­my (keeps most of the skin), and nip­ple-spar­ing mas­tec­to­my (keeps the nip­ple and some sur­round­ing area).

• Lumpec­to­my: This surgery removes only the tumor and a small mar­gin of healthy tis­sue sur­round­ing it. Lumpec­to­my is often fol­lowed by radi­a­tion therapy.

Advanced Options at QMG:

At QMG, we under­stand that breast can­cer surgery can be a sig­nif­i­cant deci­sion. We offer advanced sur­gi­cal options to pro­vide a more com­pre­hen­sive and per­son­al­ized approach:

• Skin-Spar­ing and Nip­ple-Spar­ing Mas­tec­tomies: These tech­niques pri­or­i­tize cos­met­ic out­comes, allow­ing for the preser­va­tion of healthy skin and poten­tial­ly the nip­ple and are­o­la. Our sur­geons, Dr. Chris­t­ian Zwick (gen­er­al sur­geon) and Dr. Eric Fynn-Thomp­son (plas­tic sur­geon), often work togeth­er to per­form these pro­ce­dures seam­less­ly, with imme­di­ate breast recon­struc­tion in some cases.

• Oncoplas­tic Surgery: This inno­v­a­tive approach com­bines tumor removal (lumpec­to­my or par­tial mas­tec­to­my) with recon­struc­tive tech­niques dur­ing the same surgery. This min­i­mizes the vis­i­bil­i­ty of scars and improves cos­met­ic out­comes for patients under­go­ing breast con­ser­va­tion surgery.

Magseed® & Mag­trace®: To help fur­ther improve out­comes for our community’s breast can­cer patients, QMG now offers Magseed® and Mag­trace® becom­ing the first in West Cen­tral Illi­nois to do so. Dr. Chris­t­ian Zwick, QMG Sur­geon, is uti­liz­ing these inno­v­a­tive can­cer tech­nolo­gies which allows our team to pre­cise­ly remove can­cer­ous tis­sue with­out the use of wire. 

• Magseed® is a tiny mag­net­ic seed, approx­i­mate­ly the size of a grain of rice, which is used to accu­rate­ly mark tumors or lymph nodes, allow­ing sur­geons to detect and remove them as accu­rate­ly as pos­si­ble. The Magseed® mark­er is made out of sur­gi­cal-grade stain­less steel and is locat­ed using its mag­net­ic trace. The Magseed® mark­er replaces the tra­di­tion­al guidewire method of can­cer mark­ing and is less inva­sive for a patient. 

• The Mag­trace® lym­phat­ic trac­er is a liq­uid trac­er that has been devel­oped specif­i­cal­ly for sen­tinel node biop­sies. Detect­ed by the Sen­timag® local­iza­tion sys­tem, The tiny par­ti­cles in the Mag­trace® lym­phat­ic trac­er are able to quick­ly pass through the lym­phat­ic sys­tem, fol­low­ing the same path a spread­ing can­cer cell would take. The sys­tem then guides the physi­cian to where the liq­uid col­lects in the armpit, to see if the can­cer has spread. This is crit­i­cal in deter­min­ing the tumor stage and decid­ing on the patient’s best treat­ment path. 

Ben­e­fits of Our Approach:

• Improved Cos­met­ic Out­comes: Our advanced tech­niques offer bet­ter cos­met­ic results, allow­ing for a more nat­ur­al appear­ance after surgery.

• Reduced Recov­ery Time: Com­bin­ing pro­ce­dures can some­times min­i­mize over­all recov­ery time.

• Enhanced Patient Expe­ri­ence: We pri­or­i­tize patient com­fort and well-being, offer­ing a com­pre­hen­sive approach with expe­ri­enced sur­geons work­ing collaboratively.