The before and after of life with breast cancer

For any person facing the reality of breast cancer, early diagnosis and treatment is essential to survival. However, what we don’t realize is that for many, that nightmare climaxes after beating the disease. While surgical removal of a tumor (breast conserving therapy-BCT) or an entire breast gland (mastectomy) offers the hope of a cancer-free future, different burdens can, and often do, creep in — a negative body and breast image, sexual dysfunction, and struggles communicating with partners.

{mosads}In short, a perception of incompleteness can linger. These emotional scars are difficult and complex but can be softened through a number of activities, including breast reconstruction. As October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, let’s keep in mind that the battle continues long after beating the disease, but there are solutions — like breast reconstruction — that can help ease life after cancer for many survivors.

What Is Breast Reconstruction?

The technical aim of breast reconstruction is to restore the normal shape, size, and appearance of a breast affected by surgery to remove cancer. Surgical approaches that remove cancer, while curative in intent, can, unfortunately, leave a breast grossly deformed. Fundamentally, reconstruction aims to reverse the deformity. Furthermore, as intervention on one breast may leave a perceptible asymmetry relative to the other, reconstruction may involve surgery on both breasts.

The emotional aim of breast reconstruction is to help make patients feel whole, and studies evaluating this support this assertion. According to a 2013 review by Dr. Marissa Howard-McNatt, Department of Surgery, Wake Forest School of Medicine, women who receive breast reconstruction show notable psychological advantages and express an improved quality of life.  Armed with this point, one would surmise that all women undergoing breast cancer surgery should be reconstructed. In truth, the issue is more complex and rates of reconstruction remain widely varied. A number of patients either do not want additional surgery; are not healthy enough for more surgery; or do not assign importance to reconstruction. And unfortunately, the differing rates of reconstruction extend beyond biology and/or individual choice and remain influenced by age, income disparity, ethnicity, and geographic variation.

The good news is that reconstruction rates are generally increasing and in 2014, a study from authors at various academic institutions around the United States, reported reconstruction rates of 42 percent of women in large cities like Los Angeles.   

Traditional and New Approaches: Fat Is Back

As noted above, women who undergo surgery for removal of breast cancer undergo either removing the entire breast (total mastectomy) or just the part of the breast affected by cancer (breast conserving therapy). Following total mastectomy, reconstruction can be performed using implants or tissue from another part of the body. These reconstructive surgeries can take place at the same time of cancer resection but often take place in a series of steps and are coordinated between different surgical specialties. For patients undergoing breast conserving therapy, women are often left with asymmetries due to volume loss or scarring. Regardless of whether or not a patient has undergone a mastectomy or BCT, one of the fastest growing techniques in breast reconstructive surgery is called “fat grafting”.

Fat grafting is where excess fat from one part of the patient’s body is removed by liposuction and transplanted back to the breast. One company offering this alternative procedure is Puregraft, a leader in fat transfer solutions. Founded in 2013, Puregraft reconstructs survivors’ breasts in a natural and safe way, as fat is already a part of the normal breast anatomy, so the result is a very naturally-looking reconstruction. In other words, like tissue is used to replace like tissue—a perfect match. Today, fat is used to correct volume deficiencies and help with scarring resulting from surgery or radiation. Multiple studies report satisfaction rates just below 95 percent when fat grafting is used in cases of breast reconstruction.

Fat grafting represents an invaluable method of helping naturally restore what cancer took away—the subtle shape, projection, and contour of a breast. In all, breast reconstruction is far more than a series of surgical procedures, but often part of restoring a missing and healing sense of femininity. The true before and after of breast cancer.

Daniels is the chief medical officer at Puregraft, a leader in fat grafting solutions that is changing the way aesthetic and reconstructive medicine is practiced. For more information, please visit Puregraft.com.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.