Studies Show Conflicting Results on Mammograms after Fat Transfer

We recently blogged about a study that concluded that fat transfer for breast augmentation doesn’t interfere with mammograms. However, a new study about the subject came to a different conclusion.

The latest study found that the fat transfer breast augmentation procedure — in which fat from other parts of the body is transferred to the breasts — can cause false suspicion of breast cancer on follow-up mammograms.

According to the study by Dr. Cong-Feng Wang of Meitan General Hospital in Beijing, mammographic changes occurring after fat injection are indistinguishable from abnormalities associated with breast cancer. Based on this “mammographic confusion,” the authors concluded that the use of fat injection for breast augmentation should be “prohibited continuously.”

The earlier study, by doctors in France, included a descriptive analysis of 31 patients who had follow-up mammograms after fat transfer for breast augmentation, a technique the authors call “lipomodeling.”  Microcalcifications were visible on five mammograms (16 percent), but the authors wrote that with the use of modern radiographic techniques “radiologists can now easily distinguish between calcifications resulting from fat necrosis and those associated with cancer.” They concluded that none of the changes were considered likely to raise suspicions of breast cancer on routine mammograms.

The new study looked at 48 women who underwent fat transfer, which the authors refer to as “autologous fat injection for breast augmentation.” They found eight cases (16.7 percent) with clustered microcalcifications in postoperative mammograms. While the microcalcifications rates were very close in the two studies, the authors of the new study concluded that in all eight cases the microcalcifications were regarded as “highly suspicious” for breast cancer.

Both studies were published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal, the official journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). An ASPS release noted the conflicting studies and said that the results “highlight the need for caution — and for more scientific evidence on the mammographic changes occurring after fat injection.”