Definition of "lumpectomy" []

• Surgical excision of a tumor from the breast with the removal of a minimal amount of surrounding tissue. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Mrs. Edwards will be undergoing further testing of her infiltrative ductal carcinoma of the breast, to determine how far it's spread and whether or not a mastectomy or lumpectomy is indicated."
• "These trials demonstrated that a much less drastic operation called a lumpectomy was appropriate in many cases; when combined with radiation therapy it provided a chance of survival indistinguishable from that provided by Halsted-style mastectomy."
• "Such early-stage cancers usually can be treated by a surgical procedure called a lumpectomy, which removes only the cancerous tissue, rather than the entire breast."