People magazine had an article recently about Suzanne Somers and her breast cancer reconstruction by fat transfer using stem cells. “New Breasts, New Start: Why the cancer survivor chose an experimental surgery using stem cells to rebuild her breasts.”
I won’t go on and on about fat cell grafting for breast augmentation and reconstruction. I have started to do cases and am pleased by what I see. How could you not like doing liposuction to remove fat from where you don’t want it and move it to where you do want it?
The “stem cell” component of the article is still controversial. Remember fat is a rich source of stem cells without “enriching it” with extra stem cells. There is still much we don’t know about stem cells. Please see my links here. The reality is for most of my patients enriching the fat with extra stem cells it isn’t a feasible option- to get enough fat to spin it down to get a small plug of stem cells you need a lot of fat. Most of my patients don’t have enough fat to spare to do spin for stem cells, as we are using all the fat we can to give volume to the breast.
I am not a treating doctor for Suzanne Somers. From what it sounds like, she had a partial breast defect- not missing the whole breast like mastectomy patients- so for her, it sounds like she had extra fat to spin to get the stem cells.
I love the fact People magazine picked up the story. It is helping raise the discussion and awareness of fat grafting. To see my numerous posts, please see my blog.