Breast Cancer Surgery has evolved over the years, from very extensive surgeries to very minimal, cosmetically acceptable procedures, with excellent cure rates.
Breast Cancer Surgery
Breast Cancer can be diagnosed in different Stages – Stage 1 to 4.
All women diagnosed in Stage 1, 2 and 3 are curable, and they will mandatorily require surgery to cure their breast cancer.
Those women diagnosed with Stage 4 may or may not require surgery for their breast tumor. This decision will be taken by our team of doctors, after assessing the extent of your Cancer spread.
There are different procedures that can be done by our surgeon, for your breast cancer.
These include
– Core Needle Biopsy
– Excision Biopsy
– Breast Conservation Surgery aka Lumpectomy
– Mastectomy
– Palliative Mastectomy
The first two are diagnostic procedures, and the others are treatment procedures
Mastectomy means removal of the entire breast.
This used to be the recommended treatment for many decades, until simpler surgeries like Lumpectomy were found to be equally effective.
Even today, for women with bigger tumors, complete removal of breast may be required.
This will be decided by our Surgical Oncologist after assessing your tumor size.
Research has shown that it is not needed to remove the entire breast for all women who has breast cancer.
For a majority of women, it is sufficient to remove only the tumor with adequate safety margins, to cure them.
This limited surgery is known as Breast Conservation Surgery or Lumpectomy.
The biggest advantage of this is, the breast contour is preserved well, and it is possible to have normal looking breasts, after surgery.
Our Surgical Oncologist will assess your tumor size and inform whether you are eligible for Lumpectomy.
If so, it is your choice whether you want to undergo Lumpectomy or Mastectomy.
Sometimes, because of the tumor size and spread, you may not be eligible for Lumpectomy.
In that case, Mastectomy will be the only option.
From a cosmetic point of view, Lumpectomy is definitely better than Mastectomy, while giving same Cure rates.
Breast Surgery is a straightforward procedure, and our patients are often discharged in 1 day.!
They can finish their Breast Cancer Surgery and be home on the third day.
Most patients have no pain or other symptoms, and you will be prescribed drugs for pain, in case you need it for one or two days.
The exact cost will depend on the type of surgery and the pre-existing medical conditions, since this can have an impact on post-op recovery.
Generally speaking it can cost anywhere between 70,00o to 2 lakh INR.
Health insurance coverage can help you offset most of this cost.