Evidence Hub

Therapeutic mammoplasty combining partial mastectomy with nipple-areola grafting for patients with early breast cancer: a case series

Kijima Y, Yoshinaka H, Hirata M, Shinden Y, Nakajo A, Arima H, Kurahara H, Ishigami S et al.

Surgery today, 2016

Abstract

PURPOSE: Therapeutic mammoplasty (TM) for breast cancer is a widely practiced oncoplastic technique. Intraductal spread towards the nipple or the location of the cancerous lesion on the central breast may become a contraindication for breast-conserving surgery. We herein report the results of TM in such cases.

METHODS: Six patients underwent TM that combined partial mastectomy with free nipple-areola (NA) grafting. The nipple was removed together with the cancerous lesions, and the areola was preserved for NA reconstruction. The tumors were located in the lower quadrant (n = 1), the central area (n = 1), the upper-outer area (n = 2), and the upper-inner area (n = 2). The types of mammoplasty that were performed included: amputation (n = 1), inverted T mammoplasty (n = 3), and L mammoplasty (n = 2). With the exception of one patient, all patients underwent inverted T mammoplasty on the contralateral breast in order to achieve symmetry.

RESULTS: The total surgical and plastic periods ranged from 155 to 235 min (mean 207 min) and 100 to 150 min (mean 121 min), respectively. Oncological safety and excellent cosmetic results were achieved.

CONCLUSIONS: TM combining partial mastectomy with NA grafting was successfully performed in patients with early-stage cancer in all quadrant areas.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a case series, done in people. Its evidence level is 5 of 5 (Very low · case / narrative / animal / in vitro / in silico). Case reports, narrative reviews, and animal, cell or computer-model studies give the weakest evidence for human health.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free