After a friend's breast cancer diagnosis, Dr. Robert Whitfield explains reconstruction options: tissue expanders with implants and fat grafting, or autologous flaps like DIEP. Autologous fat transfer doesn't impair cancer surveillance or cause recurrence. The choice depends on breast size and available donor tissue.
Questions this video answers
June.
No — it does not affect surveillance and does not cause cancer recurrence.
Chapters
Just wild how the universe works. Very close friend of mine, very. Someone very close to me, got diagnosed with breast cancer in June. I forget the actual type, but she's basically. They're hoping that they could just be done with surgery and not have to do any radiation or chemo and. But you know. And then they kind of talked her out of a double mastectomy because it's only on one side, and that's a really invasive surgery if you get rid of. So the whole conversation was about this debate she's having with herself, like, do I just go flat or do I put in a small implant? And she's sorry, I'm grabbing my boobs all the time. And she knows the kind of risks of putting an implant in, but at the same time, she's just weighing those options. So what would you recommend for, like, what are the options? Just, like, fat transplant as a safer option or.
Yeah. So those cases separately. Listening. Fat transfers, for some reason recently have been kind of pegged as something that makes cancer detection confusing, which it doesn't. This was all debated many, many years ago, actually in the early 2000s. So, like, we'll say 2004 until 2010. There's lots of debate about this. And I would present at conferences about this, as many others would, and it doesn't affect cancer surveillance and it doesn't cause cancer recurrence. So the thing will be different based on, like you said, the size of the breast relative to the other breast. And then can you replace something volumetrically with their own fat? So the options would be like a temporary device, like a tissue expander, convert it to a small implant and then let them wait or leave the expander, and then slowly, over time, replace that volume with their own fat. So that's an option. And she sounds like she's pretty petite. But even petite patients sometimes who've had children, you can do that operation. I mentioned the dip free flap, especially on one side, for a small patient, that's an option.
