Dr. Harness if I get a mastectomy do I need chemotherapy (chemo)? Dr. Jay Harness gives breast cancer treatment and facts. He's the President American Society of Breast Surgeons. St. Joseph Hospital Comprehensive Breast Center.

Dr. Jay Harness: A very common question that I am asked is the question ‘Oh gosh, if you just get rid of the breast does that mean I do not need all that other bad stuff. I don’t need chemotherapy. I don’t need radiation therapy.’ The answer to it is you may well need the chemotherapy because we think of breast cancer as a systemic disease as soon as there is growth through the wall of the ducts cancer cells can shut off, sounds like dandruff and float and go elsewhere in the body. So, cells elsewhere in the body that were most concerned about and that is why chemotherapy or anti estrogen pill therapies are necessary to go after those cells.

So, regardless of what is done with the breast saving it or removing it the other therapies are treating the whole body and are very important.