Oncoplastic and reconstructive surgery: Qualifications, limits, and mentoring

Disfiguring and mutilating surgical procedures can no longer be biologically and oncologically justified for most early breast cancer patients under screening programs. In this way, oncoplastic surgery is a necessary evolution and a final refinement of surgery. It combines oncologic and plastic surgery techniques in order to improve the final aesthetic outcomes. A single surgeon with both oncologic and reconstructive backgrounds requires special training in cross-specialty techniques to undertake all these procedures to the highest standard and with new responsibilities and new medicolegal implications. The aim of this chapter is to address qualifications and limits in oncoplastic surgery training and practice.