Types of Mastectomy

The types of mastectomy include:

• Total (simple) mastectomy: Removes the entire breast, including much of the overlying skin and the nipple.
• Skin-sparing mastectomy: Removes the breast and nipple, leaving the overlying skin intact
• Nipple-sparing mastectomy: Removes the breast but leaves the nipple and overlying skin intact
• Modified radical mastectomy: Removes the breast, its skin, and the nipple, and most of the axillary lymph nodes
• Radical mastectomy: Removes the breast, its skin, the nipple, the axillary lymph nodes, and the underlying chest muscles (rarely done except for cancers that are growing into the chest muscles)
• Double (or bilateral) mastectomy: Removes both breasts.
• Preventive (or prophylactic) mastectomy: Removes one or both breasts for people who are at elevated risk for breast cancer. For example, they may carry, a specific gene mutation (change) for breast cancer, such as BRCA1 or BRCA2, to lower their cancer risk