This video describes a technique of radical mastectomy, which is used for the surgical removal of the entire mammary gland from a mouse to study cancer progression.
Protocol
1. Mastectomy NOTE: The timing of the mastectomy is very important. If it is done too early, lung metastasis does not occur. If it is done too late, the primary tumor has invaded major blood vessels, which make a complete oncologic resection challenging. Thus, multiple time points were tested for mastectomy to determine which time point produced the appropriate balance in waiting for metastasis before resection became too challenging. After doing so in over 50 mouse experim…
Radical Mastectomy: Surgical Removal of the Entire Mammary Gland from a Mouse to Study Cancer Progression. J. Vis. Exp. (Pending Publication), e20213, doi: (2023).