Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy,curative effects and cosmetic results of nipple-sparing modified radical mastectomy (NSM) in the treatment of breast cancer.Methods Ninety-six patients who received initial therapy in Linyi Cancer Hospital from January 1,2007 to January 1,2010 were selected.Among them,35 patients undergoing NSM were chosen as NSM group,61 patients undergoing modified radical mastectomy (MRM) were chosen as MRM group.The postoperative complications,aesthetic assessment,local recurrence and distant metastasis of the two groups were compared.Results In postoperative complications,the difference of the two groups had no statistical significance (x2 =3.140,P =0.061).NSM group was better than MRM group in aesthetic evaluation (x2 =82.786,P =0.000).Follow-up was obtained in all patients with range of 48 to 84 months and 63 months in average.Neither of them had local recurrence.Two patients(5.7％) in NSM group and three patients(4.9％) in MRM group developed distant metastasis.The incidents of distant metastasis had no statistically significant difference (x2 =0.029,P =0.866).Conclusion NSM can obtain the same therapeutic effect as MRM,and is easily accepted by patients before operation and has the better aesthetic assessment after operation.NSM is worth spreading widely.