What was the procedure performed on the right breast mass in the 44-year-old patient?

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Biopsy choices reflect whether you’re diagnosing with tissue or removing a lesion for treatment. An excisional biopsy removes the entire breast mass (often with a small rim of surrounding tissue) so the whole lesion can be examined histologically. This approach is used when the goal is diagnostic certainty by studying the entire lesion, which fits a scenario where the mass itself was taken out for pathology.

In contrast, a core needle biopsy samples the lesion with a hollow needle to obtain tissue cores, leaving the mass in place; fine-needle aspiration retrieves cells but preserves little tissue architecture; and lumpectomy with sentinel node biopsy is a broader surgical treatment that removes the tumor with margins and checks lymph nodes, usually when cancer is diagnosed and staging is planned.

So the procedure described aligns with excisional biopsy, where the entire right breast mass is removed for diagnostic evaluation.