Key Takeaways:

• Breast cancer treatment options have changed drastically over the last 50 years.
• One such breast cancer treatment option is called oncoplastic breast surgery, which combines tumor removal and plastic surgery within the same procedure.
• Not everyone is a candidate for oncoplastic surgery but your healthcare team will go over all the options and create a treatment plan individualized for you.

St. Joseph’s/Candler Breast Surgeon Dr. Katharine Armstrong explains this growing surgical technique she offers to qualified patients

So much has changed in breast cancer treatment since your grandmother or great-grandmother was diagnosed with the disease.  

Not all women will need a full mastectomy. Not all women will even need chemotherapy. If you get diagnosed with breast cancer, your healthcare team will go over all your options to determine the best course of treatment tailored specifically for you.

“The overall trend, when we were talking about breast cancer in the 1970s, was that the breast cancer was viewed as one disease and you got one treatment,” says Dr. Katharine Armstrong, St. Joseph’s/Candler Breast Surgeon. “You got a huge mastectomy where they took the breast, muscle and every single lymph, and that was the only option you were given.”

“Today, there are so many different options and so many different things we can offer patients to treat their breast cancer and make them feel whole again.”

One such treatment that Dr. Armstrong offers to qualified and interested patients is called oncoplastic breast surgery. While this surgical technique is not new, it is something trending upwards that more and more women are becoming aware of as an option.

What is oncoplastic breast surgery?

Oncoplastic surgery combines the removal of the tumor by the breast surgeon and plastic surgery to reconstruct the breast within the same procedure. Depending on the goals of the patient, Dr. Armstrong can utilize her own techniques or partner with a plastic surgeon.

Let’s look at a couple of examples of how oncoplastic surgery is performed:

1. There are certain instances where the patient wants the most minimally-invasive surgical option. They might not want to see a plastic surgery, so Dr. Armstrong uses her training to remove the tumor and fill in that defect so the breast maintains its normal shape and contour as much as possible.
2. If the surgery requires more extensive volume replacement or a breast reduction or breast lift to remove the tumor, she partners with a plastic surgeon to perform the procedure all at one time. Additionally, if there needs to be any changes made to the unaffected breast following tumor removal, Dr. Armstrong always involves a plastic surgeon.

“I never want somebody to have their breast cancer diagnosis and feel deformed after. My hope and goal is that somebody’s going to live for a really, really long time with whatever treatment option we choose to do,” Dr. Armstrong says. “We can work together to try to achieve both the best oncologic outcome as well as the best aesthetic outcome such that the patient feels as close to themselves as possible at the end of it all.”

Individualized care tailored just for you

Not everyone with a breast cancer diagnosis is a candidate for oncoplastic surgery. Dr. Armstrong prides herself on taking the time to educate each of her patients about their cancer and all the different options available to them.

“My philosophy has always been that it’s my job to educate the patient so that they have all of the tools, all the information they need to be able to make a truly informed decision for themselves about their care,” Dr. Armstrong says. “It’s still cancer. It still needs to be treated aggressively, but it needs to be treated in such a way that the treatments we offer will work, while maintaining quality of life. We want to make sure that the treatments that we’re doing are really tailored to the individual patient and their individual tumor, not just a blanket treatment.”