Autologous Fat Grafting Oncological Safety. a Single-Centre Equivalence Study

Background. Autologous fat graft, otherwise named “lipofilling”, is a minimally invasive surgical technique that uses the own patient’s adipose tissue to correct disfiguring and painful sequelae after several kinds of pathological events, including breast cancer surgery. Despite its proven and undeniable benefits, experimental research has demonstrated that autologous fat graft stimulates angiogenesis and tissue regeneration, and this element has induced researchers to evaluate its possible role in stimulating locoregional recurrence of breast cancer.

Methods. We conducted a single-centre retrospective analysis on 2397 female patients. Every patient has had a primary breast cancer diagnosis and has undergone breast cancer surgery at Humanitas Research Hospital beetween November 2007 and November 2015. Study population has been divided in a group of 414 cases, who have been treated with autologous fat graft after oncological surgery, and a group of 1983 controls, who haven’t been treated with fat graft. Patients have been selected with similar distribution in the two groups, according the TNM stadiation system; both intraepithelial and infiltrating neoplasias were included in the same proportion in the two groups.

Results. Mean age at diagnosis was 49 years in the case group and 55 years in the control group. Mean follow-up from surgery date was 4.2 years in the case group and 3.9 years in the control group. Mean time distance between surgery and first fat graft was 1.39 years, regarding the case group. The equivalence study revealed a global recurrence percentage of 4,5% in case group and 5,3% in control group, and it can be considered statistically non significant

 Conclusions. This study represent one of the more significant equivalence “single center” study that demonstrate that autologous fat graft did not imply an increased rate of locoregional recurrence in patients with breast cancer. Lipofilling is a safe procedure that leads to satisfying cosmetic outcomes without increasing the locoregional recurrence risk after breast cancer surgery.