Breast cancer surgery has lasted for more than 100 years from radical mastectomy, expanded radical mastectomy to modified radical mastectomy. However, with the continuous in-depth research on breast cancer in modern medicine, it is found that comprehensive treatment is the guarantee to improve the survival rate of breast cancer patients, and the result of pursuing expanded resection does not improve the postoperative survival rate of patients, therefore, in the past 30 years, “breast conservation ” has gradually become the main surgical modality for breast cancer. At present, breast-conserving surgery accounts for more than 50% of breast cancer surgery in many western countries, and the breast-conserving rate of breast cancer surgery in Japan, Singapore and other Asian countries reaches 60% to 70%. In contrast, breast-conserving surgery in China is very limited, and even the percentage of breast-conserving surgery in some large hospitals is only 20%. In general, breast-conserving treatment is a treatment for single breast cancer less than 3 cm in diameter, including the complete regression of the tumor to within 3 cm after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (preoperative chemotherapy), which is a combination of extensive excision of the tumor, preservation of the overall shape of the breast, and postoperative radiotherapy. In fact, with the popularization of people’s knowledge about breast health, most of the breast cancer patients currently consulted are stage I and II, but why do more patients undergo total breast excision? When it is clear that the patient has breast cancer, he or she and the family members will be in fear, believing that the more surgery is removed, the “safer” the surgery will be, not to mention the future quality of life and the impact of breast loss. In addition, the more patients around us undergo total mastectomy, the more doubts patients have about breast-conserving surgery, and as a result, those patients who could be breast-conserving choose to undergo total mastectomy, while many patients have to consider breast reconstruction and repair only years later due to a series of problems caused by breast loss. The goal of breast-conserving treatment is to achieve the same survival rate as total mastectomy, reduce local recurrence and obtain good breast shape through breast-conserving surgery combined with radiation therapy. The failure of breast cancer treatment is often due to the fact that the cancer cells present in the whole body are not destroyed by drugs, not due to “incomplete” local surgery, and the complete removal of the tumor is not a blind enlargement or sacrifice of the whole organ. Therefore, we need to clarify the indications for breast-conserving surgery before surgery, apply color ultrasound, breast MRI and other imaging techniques to exclude multicentric breast cancer, and accurately determine the size and extent of tumor infiltration, so as to decide the safe scope of surgical excision, meet the negative surgical margins while reducing the sacrifice of normal breast tissue, thus reducing the impact of surgery on breast appearance and achieving the therapeutic requirements of breast-conserving surgery. Breast-conserving surgery must also be approached scientifically, and the option of breast-conserving surgery should be abandoned in cases of multicentric, more extensive invasive breast cancer and those with persistently positive surgical margins. Through the follow-up of breast cancer in our hospital in the past decade, the current percentage of breast-conserving surgery is over 50%. In the same period, there is no statistical difference in the postoperative survival rate and local recurrence rate between patients who underwent breast-conserving surgery and those who underwent total mastectomy, but there is a significant difference in the quality of life and physical and mental status. It is more important to cherish the breast of breast cancer patients and the efforts of doctors. As surgeons should have the responsibility to help breast cancer patients choose the surgical method scientifically and never deprive patients of the opportunity to choose, to communicate fully and carefully with patients before surgery, and to take into account the quality of life of patients after surgery while focusing on the current diagnosis and treatment. With the development of medicine, the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer has made great progress, and simple tumor treatment is no longer the only criterion to judge the success of breast cancer treatment, improving patients’ postoperative quality of life and restoring the missing breast has become a necessary concept for modern surgeons. For patients who must undergo total mastectomy, they also have the opportunity to choose simultaneous or second-stage breast reconstructive surgery, and not to adopt “one size fits all” for all breast cancer patients. Cherish life, cherish health, and let doctors and patients cherish breast cancer patients’ breasts together.