February 11, 2025
A two-year, nearly $439,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute will support efforts to establish best-practice guidelines for the use of adipose (fat) tissue in breast reconstruction. The study is co-led by David Otterburn, MD, FACS, plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Kristy Brown, PhD, co-leader of The University of Kansas Cancer Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control research program.
Breast reconstruction often involves using a patient’s own fat, but there is no clear consensus on the best technique for processing it. Surgeons use different methods, including newer approaches that enrich for certain cell populations within the fat, yet data comparing their effectiveness is limited. Dr. Brown and the team aim to fill this gap by evaluating how various fat processing methods affect clinical results and cellular characteristics.
The team will compare three common fat processing methods, analyzing their effects on surgical success, cellular-level differences and estrogen-producing proteins. Fat is often placed near tissue previously affected by estrogen-responsive cancer (i.e., ER+ breast cancer). Since fat can produce tumor-promoting factors like estrogen, it’s important to determine whether new approaches maintain established safety profiles for this procedure.
“Understanding how fat processing methods influence both tissue survival and hormone activity is critical to improving breast reconstruction outcomes,” Dr. Brown said. “Our findings could help standardize techniques, ultimately giving patients more effective options.”