Using surgery to do the biopsy
In rare cases, a surgical biopsy may be needed to diagnose breast cancer – this is when the biopsy is done, and if cancer is found it’s removed during the same operation. It’s important to know all of your treatment options beforehand because you must make important choices before the procedure begins. You will not know if the breast change was cancer or what type of surgery was done until after you wake up from the surgery. When breast cancer is diagnosed with surgery, a second surgery is often still needed for final treatment.