Doctor, am I going to lose my breast? Watch Dr. Jay Harness of St. Joseph Hospital Comprehensive Breast Center in Orange, CA and the President for the American Society of Breast Surgeons explain.

Dr. Jay Harness: For the past 20 years, we have been an era where we can safely save women’s breasts and by saving their breasts they do equally as well as with a traditional mastectomy and so depending on the patient one of the fears I have or one of the questions that they have is, “Doctor do I need to lose my breast?” I would say that a good 60 percent, some time 70 percent of the cases women do not need to lose their breasts and that we can treat them quite safely with what is called breast conservation. The layman’s term for this is lumpectomy and patients need to know that when they have a lumpectomy, they also need radiation therapy.