Autologous Fat Does Not Increase Recurrent Breast Cancer Risk

A study published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (February 2016) reports that for women undergoing mastectomies, lipofilling—using the patient’s own fat cells to optimize the results of breast reconstruction—does not increase the risk of recurrent breast cancer.Using a plastic surgery database, the researchers analyzed a series of more than 1,000 partial or total mastectomies that were followed by breast reconstruction with lipofilling. (About 30% of the cases involved risk-reducing mastectomy in women at high genetic risk of breast cancer.) The rates of recurrent or new breast cancers were then compared with a similar group of women who underwent mastectomy followed by breast reconstruction without lipofilling.The review found that overall recurrence rates were similar for reconstruction with and without lipofilling, and the rate of recurrence in the breast and surrounding area was not significantly different between groups: 1.3% for women who had lipofilling vs. 2.4% in those who did not.Read more at MedEsthetics.