There are two types of surgery that are used for stage 1 breast cancer treatment. The types of stage 1 breast cancer treatments do not exclusively belong to this stage, but they are also used for the treatment of breast cancer at other stages.

The two types are:

• Surgery to remove just the cancerous area of the breast through lumpectomy or conserving surgery followed by radiation treatments

• Mastectomy, the surgery to remove the breast

In order to decide which type of surgery to have to treat your stage 1 breast cancer, presented in the following are the facts for you to think about and help yourself in making a decision.

• After breast-conserving surgery, how do you feel about the requirement for radiation therapy? Think about the time that may be required to recover from a mastectomy and that may need to be taken off from work. Furthermore, you should think of the distance you will be required to travel for the treatment.

• Your feelings regarding keeping your breast. You should choose what feels right to you regarding keeping your breast or having it removed.

• Whether you have very large breasts. You may have back and neck or muscle strain problems due to a weight imbalance if you choose mastectomy. Nonetheless, surgery to make the other breast smaller known as reduction mammoplasty is opted by the women with large breasts who choose to have a mastectomy and breast reconstruction.

• The location and the size of your breast cancer is crucial as knowing what your breast cancer looks like on the mammogram does make a difference.

• Removing the tumor may leave a large defect in the center of the breast if the tumor is under your nipple and areola. Furthermore, your nipple may also require to be removed in this case. You may opt for mastectomy if this is your situation.

• Your breast may be left with only a small defect by the removal of the tumor if it is at the edge of your breast. If this is your situation, breast-conserving therapy would be a good choice.

• A mastectomy is what you may wish to opt if your one breast have two or more cancerous areas that are too far apart to be removed through a single incision or if ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a precancerous condition, is present throughout your breast

• Just a small defect in your breast may be left by the removal of the tumor if it is a small one. Breast-conserving therapy would be good choice in this situation as well.

• In order to remove the tumor that is large pertinent to your breast size, your surgeon may have to remove a lot of breast tissue. You may not be satisfied the way your breast looks in this case. This is the reason you should consider having a mastectomy with reconstructive surgery for the purpose of restoring the appearance of the breast.