Quantitative assessment of autologous fat grafting in breast cancer treatment using 3D imaging

Project Abstract Autologous fat grafting (AFG) is a procedure whereby adipose tissue is processed and transferred from one part of the body to another to add volume and address contour irregularity in soft tissue reconstruction. Anecdotally, we see improvement in tissue fibrosis and pain with standard grafting after radiation treatment indicating more than just a volume benefit of AFG. We have recently discovered that the transferred fat or adipose brings in healthy progenitor cells, growth factors and immune cells helpful in tissue regeneration and repair. Thus, purified graft is effectively a biological scaffold which can be modified to direct tissue healing or targeted therapies. One of the hurdles to clinical translation is the variability in graft retention and our ability to follow the graft over time. The long-term goal of our research is to investigate the capacity of engineered adipose grafts to improve clinical outcomes by mitigating inflammation and promoting graft retention. We propose a feasibility study investigating a novel imaging platform to quantitatively assess the overall volume and three-dimensional (3D) shape of the breast after fat grafting in cancer treatment.