Treatment Options

Reconstruction: Making the Decision

You may be a candidate for breast reconstruction immediately after your mastectomy, or you may be advised to wait, even for a period of several years. If you do have reconstruction at the same time as your mastectomy, you will wake up from surgery with a breast mound (the first step in reconstruction) already in place. Ask your doctor if immediate reconstruction is medically appropriate for you.

However, there are legitimate reasons to delay reconstruction. If you have advanced breast cancer, which often requires radiation and chemotherapy in addition to surgery, your doctors may advise you to wait until you have completed this treatment.

Many women choose to wait to make a decision about reconstruction because they aren't comfortable making more decisions at the time of their cancer diagnosis. Other women simply don't want to have any more surgery than is absolutely necessary. Finally, some women are advised to wait, particularly if they have a pre-existing condition that would complicate treatment or reconstruction.

How it's done
Reconstruction involves two separate operations. The first procedure is to create the breast mound, which is created with a tissue expander or transfer of tissue from elsewhere on the body. There are different methods of this procedure, which your plastic surgeon will discuss with you before surgery.

The second procedure is an out-patient surgery done about three months later to create the nipple.

There are two main types of reconstructive surgery:

• Implant 
• Tissue reconstruction

More information on treatment options:

• Surgery
• Breast Reconstruction
• Radiation
• Chemotherapy
• Treating local recurrence

August 2007