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The study sought to evaluate the quality of life of women treated surgically for breast cancer at the State Oncology Hospital of Reference in São Luís in the State of Maranhão. The quality of life was assessed by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B). The variables were expressed as mean and standard deviation, and statistical analysis consisted of the ANOVA or Kruskal Wallis test and the Student t or Mann-Whitney test. The level of significance was α < 5%. For statistical tests Stata 9.0 and BioEstat 5.0 were used. 197 women with mean age of 53.0 ± 11.7 years participated. The mean values of the FACT-B revealed a good quality of life trend, though the emotional domain was most prejudiced and the cancer sub-scale the most favorable. The type of surgery influenced the social, emotional and cancer sub-scale domain. Non-conservative surgery revealed the worst quality of life levels. A statistically significant relationship between duration of surgery and the physical, emotional and functional domains and between duration of surgery and the scores of the FACT-B was detected. Adjuvant treatment influenced all domains of FACT-B. Quality of life was relatively good, but was negatively impacted by non-conservative surgery, the shortest time between surgery and the adjuvant therapies.