radical mastectomy

(′rad·ə·kəl ¦ma′stek·tə·mē)

(medicine) Surgical removal of the breast, subcutaneous fat, muscle, lymph glands, and a wide area of skin for cancer.

#SearchBtn{margin-top:14px !important;}

Library

Animal Life

Business and Finance

Entertainment and Arts

Food and Cooking

Health

History, Politics and Society

Home and Garden

Law and Legal Issues

Literature and Language

Miscellaneous

Religion and Spirituality

Medical Dictionary: radical mastectomy

Surgical removal of the entire breast, the pectoral muscles, the lymphatic-bearing tissue in the armpit, and other neighboring tissues. Also called Halsted's operation.

WordNet: radical mastectomy

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: removal of a breast and the underlying muscles (pectoralis major and pectoralis minor) and lymph nodes in the adjacent armpit

Wikipedia: radical mastectomy

Radical mastectomy is a surgical procedure in which the breast, underlying chest muscle (including pectoralis major and pectoralis minor), and lymph nodes of the axilla are removed as a treatment for breast cancer.

It was developed and first performed by William Stewart Halsted in 1882. From about 1895 to the mid-1970s about 90% of the women being treated for breast cancer in the US underwent the radical mastectomy.

Today, there are three main categories of mastectomy:

total (simple) mastectomy,
modified radical mastectomy,
radical mastectomy.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Donate to Wikimedia

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "radical mastectomy" at WikiAnswers.

Copyrights:

		Sci-Tech Dictionary. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Medical Dictionary. The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Read more
		WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Radical mastectomy". Read more

Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar!
Click here to download now.

Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products.

On this page: Print Link

radical mastectomy

Tackle These

Keep Reading