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What is breast reconstruction?
Source: Breast Reconstruction After Mastectomy, National Cancer Institute.
Source updated: December 2, 2025 · Captured 2026-09-09.
Selected source text with whitespace normalised. This Triangle page is not an NCI PDQ summary. Independent clinical review is pending.
NCI patient treatment article for this disease Exact source article; not a clinically reviewed indication or current-standard recommendation.
Context: Breast Reconstruction After Mastectomy
What is breast reconstruction?
Many women who have a mastectomy—surgery to remove an entire breast to treat or prevent breast cancer—have the option of having the shape of the removed breast rebuilt. Some people choose not to have their breasts reconstructed after a mastectomy, instead preferring a flat closure.
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Breasts can be rebuilt using implants (saline or silicone) or autologous tissue (that is, tissue from elsewhere in the body). Sometimes both implants and autologous tissue are used to rebuild the breast.
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Surgery to reconstruct the breasts can be done (or started) at the time of the mastectomy, called immediate reconstruction, or it can be done after the mastectomy incisions have healed and treatment has been completed, called delayed reconstruction. Delayed reconstruction can happen months or even years after the mastectomy.
In the final stage of breast reconstruction, a nipple and areola may be re-created on the reconstructed breast, if these were not preserved during the mastectomy.
Sometimes breast reconstruction surgery includes surgery on the other, or contralateral, breast so that the two breasts will match in size and shape.
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Preserved source evidence · Independent clinical review pending · Not medical advice