Breast Reconstruction After Radiotherapy

It was once common practice in the treatment of breast cancer for total mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection to be conventionally performed. However, breast-conserving surgery is increasingly being performed with marked improvement in a multidisciplinary treatment approach, including surgery, chemotherapy, irradiation, and antihormonal therapy. We must choose the optimal reconstructive methods with the reduction of the excision range. Furthermore, we also consider the local chronic radiation injury after adjuvant radiotherapy on breast reconstruction. As for breast reconstruction, the use of autologous tissues or artificial prostheses is common. However, after radiotherapy or if radiotherapy is planned, the complications such as infection, skin necrosis, or exposure of the implant are increased in breast reconstruction with implants. Therefore, the breast is reconstructed with autologous tissue mainly with radiotherapy using an autologous flap transfer. Meanwhile, the autologous fat transfer with adipose-derived regenerative cells for repair and regeneration has recently been investigated in reconstructive surgery. We discuss the autologous flap and fat transfer for breast reconstruction.