In 1894, William Halsted, the professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine documented the first interventions he carried out, establishing guidelines in radical cancer surgery and using new anesthesia, aseptic and antiseptic techniques for the first time.

Results in terms of survival and local recurrence reduction were exceptional, thus making the Halsted operation, described in the 19th century, be performed on more than 90% of the patients with breast cancer in the US until the 1970s of the 20th century.

The current standard in radical mastectomy was established by John Madden in 1972. His contribution to the technique was the preservation of both pectoral muscles.