Rebuilding Breasts with Fat

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- More than 269,000,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Many of them will need surgery and radiation, procedures that can kill the cancer but disfigure breasts. Now, there's a simple way to reconstruct tissue using a patient's own fat.

Four years ago, Patricia Collins was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"I was kind of shocked because we didn't have any breast cancer in the family," Collins told ABC30.

A lumpectomy and radiation cured her cancer, but left her with a deformed breast.

"It just shrunk up my breast and completely inverted the nipple," Collins explained.

Today, she had a breast reconstruction procedure. However, instead of implants, Craig Vander Kolk, MD, Plastic Surgeon, Mercy Medical Center, used her fat.

"It feels natural and stays where it's put," Dr. Kolk told ABC30."

First, Dr. Kolk performed liposuction to remove fat stem cells from Collins' abdomen. Then he injected the fat into her breast to fill, reshape, and rebuild it.

"We can't make a breast," Dr. Kolk explained, but we can make things that are natural and look like a breast."

Patients may need a few treatments to get optimal results. There are no major incisions, no new scars, and no foreign objects left behind.

Collins is looking forward to getting back what she lost.

"I'll at least have a breast the same size as my left breast," she said.

She hopes to say goodbye to this last visible sign of cancer.

Patients who have a mastectomy are also candidates for this procedure, but because they require more fat, they must have a tummy tuck instead of liposuction. Dr. Kolk says many insurance companies cover this procedure for breast cancer patients.

If you would like more information, please contact:
Craig Vander Kolk, MD
Mercy Medical Center
410-332-9700
cvander@mdmercy.com