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Lipofilling appears safe, effective in primary breast cancer
Petit JY. Annals Oncol. 2011;doi:10.1093/annonc/mdr158.
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Patients who underwent lipofilling as part of breast reconstruction after surgery for breast cancer did not appear to have a greater risk for recurrence compared with controls, according to data published in Annals of Oncology. According to the researchers, more data and longer follow-up are required to confirm these findings.
“To date, only a few studies focused on cancer recurrences after lipofilling, and this is the first case-control study to investigate the question and the first publication to show the safety of the procedure,” Jean Yves Petit, MD, professor in the division of plastic surgery at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy, said in a press release. “Our overall results do not find any difference in recurrences between the women in the lipofilling and control groups. However, it is still too early in the follow-up to be able to draw any definitive conclusions. We urge other teams working in the same field to gather their own results concerning local recurrences after lipofilling in breast conservation treatment.”
Petit and colleagues analyzed data for 321 patients who underwent surgery for primary breast cancer between 1997 and 2008 and had lipofilling as part of reconstructive surgery. Invasive tumors were most common (89%) and median follow-up was 56 months from primary surgery and 26 months from lipofilling. Each patient was matched with two controls who did not undergo lipofilling.
The cumulative incidence curves were comparable for local events among the patients (n=8) and controls (n=19; HR=1.11; 95% CI, 0.47-2.64). When the researchers limited the analysis to invasive tumors and analyzed patients undergoing quadrantectomy and mastectomy separately, their results were confirmed. There was no significant difference among patients with invasive cancers. In fact, when limited to ductal intraepithelial neoplasia and lobular intraepithelial neoplasia, the analysis indicated a higher risk for local events in the lipofilling group compared with controls (three events vs. zero events; P<.001).
“Work by other researchers has shown that secretions from transplanted fat tissues can stimulate angiogenesis and cell growth,” Petit said in the release. “In the laboratory, the interaction between the tumor and stromal cells — the connective tissue cells found in any organ — has the potential to induce the reappearance of cancer by fueling dormant breast cancer cells in the tumor bed; for example, through angiogenesis and growth factor induction. However, until now, there has been a lack of translational research to prove whether or not this might happen in the clinic when lipofilling is used for breast cancer patients. Our study suggests that the procedure is safe for these women.”
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