Patients with operable breast cancer need to choose a surgical procedure within a short period of time after the diagnosis of breast cancer in order to receive surgery as early as possible. Most of the patients can reasonably choose the surgical procedure after listening to the surgeon’s explanation of the surgical modality, but there are also many patients who have difficulty facing the condition, fluctuate emotionally, or even feel their brains are blank, unable to fully understand the surgeon’s explanation and don’t know how to choose the surgical modality suitable for them. The following are the indications, advantages and disadvantages of several surgical methods commonly used for breast cancer, so that patients can choose the surgical method that is suitable for them: 1.Modified radical mastectomy, the most classic surgical method, is to remove the whole breast + clear the axillary lymph nodes, with complete surgical excision and low risk of local recurrence after surgery. It is especially suitable for patients who cannot preserve the breast and have metastasis in the axillary lymph nodes, and is still the most used procedure. However, the axillary lymph nodes are cleared and a small number of patients have postoperative complications of edema and pain in the upper limbs. 2.Breast conserving + axillary lymph node dissection, for patients with small breast tumor, the tumor is at a certain distance from the nipple, and there is no diffuse calcification foci and multiple foci, breast conserving surgery can be performed. The surgery removes the tumor from the breast continuously and completely, and achieves a tumor-free surgical margin. The surgery preserves most of the breast tissue, basically restores the shape of the breast and improves the patient’s quality of life. Compared with total breast excision, the treatment effect of breast-conserving surgery: the risk of local recurrence after breast-conserving surgery is about 3-4%, which is slightly higher than the risk of recurrence of 1-2% in total breast excision, but there is no significant difference in the overall survival rate between the two. Breast-conserving surgery must be followed by radiotherapy, which increases the cost and treatment time, as well as radiotherapy may have some complications, such as skin erythema and radiation pneumonia, which are aspects that patients need to weigh the pros and cons. 3.Breast-conserving + axillary-conserving surgery, axillary-conserving surgery refers to axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy, which is also called sentinel lymph node, the first station lymph node of breast cancer metastasis to the axilla, located at the entrance of the axilla. If no cancer metastasis is seen in the axillary sentinel lymph node, it is usually assumed that the deep axillary lymph nodes are also free of cancer metastasis, and axillary lymph node dissection can be dispensed with, which greatly reduces the complications such as pain, edema and activity disorders in the upper limbs after surgery and significantly improves the quality of life of patients. If no suspicious metastasis of axillary lymph nodes is found in the preoperative clinical and imaging examinations of breast cancer patients, axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy is recommended. Breast-conserving + axillary-conserving surgery is the least damaging surgery, but the indications are strict and radiotherapy is still required after surgery. 4.Total mastectomy + axillary preservation, some patients who are not suitable for breast conservation, or patients who are suitable for breast conservation but give up breast conservation due to unwillingness to radiotherapy, if no suspicious metastasis of axillary lymph nodes is found before surgery, total mastectomy + axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy can be performed if the pathological axilla is frozen intraoperatively. This procedure avoids the clearance of axillary lymph nodes and reduces postoperative complications in the upper extremity compared to the first modified radical breast cancer surgery, and saves treatment costs by removing the breast without radiotherapy compared to breast-conserving + axillary surgery. Therefore, a considerable proportion of patients choose this surgical method at present. 5.Breast reconstruction surgery, also known as reconstructive surgery, is suitable for patients who cannot preserve the breast but want to retain the shape of the breast. The most commonly used surgical method is to preserve the nipple areola subcutaneous gland excision + prosthesis placement. Other reconstructive surgery methods include latissimus dorsi muscle flap transfer breast reconstruction and rectus abdominis muscle flap transfer breast reconstruction, which are less commonly used because of the greater damage. It is important to emphasize that breast cancer patients should choose breast conservation over breast reconstruction if possible. As we can see above, the surgical treatment of breast cancer includes two parts: breast surgery and axillary surgery. Breast surgery includes breast conservation, mastectomy and reconstruction; axillary surgery includes axillary lymph node dissection and anterior lymph node biopsy. These two parts of surgery are relatively independent and can be cross-selected.