The conservative mastectomy

Abstract

We call conservative mastectomy an innovative surgical approach that spares the nipple-areola complex (NAC) while removing the entire breast gland. Nipple-sparing mastectomy spares a portion of the skin including the NAC. By sparing the NAC, we can ensure a much better cosmetic result, and in some cases we can also reduce the sensitive loss in this area. The risk of local relapse of breast cancer in the NAC area is taken into account and has a great influence by choosing this surgery only for selected patients after accurate pathological analysis (obtained during surgery) on retro-areolar breast tissue and-in our institute-can sometimes constitute a requisite for intraoperative radiotherapy with electrons (ELIOT) on the preserved NAC.