Plastic surgery after lumpectomy

Lumpectomy removes the tumour with a rim of surrounding tissue, but the shape of the breast can change depending on the tumour’s position and the amount removed. An oncoplastic surgeon may rearrange nearby breast tissue during the cancer operation or perform a later correction. The other breast may sometimes be adjusted to improve symmetry.

Options can include tissue rearrangement, fat grafting or a staged procedure. Radiotherapy can change the skin and breast tissue over time, so its timing matters when planning surgery. A breast surgeon, plastic surgeon and oncology team should coordinate the plan.

Ask whether reconstruction can be combined with lumpectomy or should wait until cancer treatment is complete. Share previous operations, smoking or nicotine use, medicines and health conditions that affect wound healing. Bring photographs or describe the shape concern you want addressed, while keeping expectations realistic.

After surgery, follow wound-care and activity instructions, wear the recommended support garment and attend both surgical and oncology reviews. Swelling, bruising, altered sensation and unevenness can improve gradually. Further adjustment is sometimes considered only after tissues have healed and treatment effects have settled.

Call the surgical team for increasing redness, warmth, wound separation, drainage, worsening swelling, fever or pain that is not controlled by the prescribed plan. Seek urgent help for sudden chest pain, severe breathlessness, fainting or rapidly expanding swelling in the breast.

Ask which technique fits the tumour location and breast shape, whether radiotherapy will affect timing, where scars will sit, what sensation changes are possible, how long healing may take, and whether a later symmetry procedure might be needed.