Surgery of Primary Site

See the current version of the SEER Program Coding Manual under Reporting Guidelines, Section VII: First course of therapy for complete coding instructions for the surgery data items or Appendix C of the current version of the SEER Program Coding Manual for a complete listing of the breast surgery codes and their descriptions.

Surgery is the most common form of treatment for breast cancers.

The most common types of surgery are listed below.
Surgical Procedure Comments
Excisional breast biopsy (breast conserving surgery) Also known as Lumpectomy, attempts to remove the entire tumor with clear margins
Re-excision of margins (breast conserving surgery) Performed when an excisional biopsy/lumpectomy specimen has positive margins
Central lumpectomy (breast conserving surgery) Removes the nipple areolar complex
Skin-sparing mastectomy Removes all breast tissue and the nipple areolar complex and preserves native breast tissue
Nipple sparing mastectomy Removes all breast tissue but preserves the nipple areolar complex and breast skin
Areolar sparing mastectomy Removes all breast tissue and the nipple but preserves the areolar and breast skin
Total (simple) mastectomy Removes all breast tissue, the nipple, areolar complex, and breast skin
Radical mastectomy Removes all breast tissue, the nipple areolar complex, breast skin, and pectoralis muscle

Document surgery details in NAACCR Item # 2610: Text-Dx Proc-Surg

Updated: January 10, 2025