R.I. surgeons, researchers share reconstructive surgery findings at international meeting

PROVIDENCE – Oncoplastic surgery, a type of reconstructive surgery performed on breast cancer patients, is becoming increasingly common in the United States, according to a study by researchers and physicians from Brown University, Lifespan Corp. and Women & Infants Hospital.

In “Oncoplastic Surgery: We are doing more, are we doing any better?” researchers analyzed data from nearly 347,000 breast cancer patients nationwide who received care from 2005 through 2019. Of that number, about 38%, or 130,000 patients, underwent oncoplastic surgery while the remainder did not.

The surgery can be a safe, effective reconstruction method for some breast cancer patients, and is not associated with a heightened risk for complications, researchers found.

The group presented their findings recently at the Plastic Surgery Research Council’s 67th annual meeting in Toronto, Canada.

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Led by Dr. Benjamin Christian and Dr. Erik Hoy, both plastic surgeons at Women & Infants Hospital, researchers found that across the country, oncoplastic surgery procedures spiked from 244 instances in 2005 and 2006 to more than 20,000 in 2019. The study also searched for trends in complications, instances where additional surgery was needed and factors that potentially interfered with wound healing.

Overall, the researchers found that oncoplastic surgery patients were younger, less likely to smoke or have COPD or diabetes than patients who underwent lumpectomies for breast cancer. Oncoplastic surgery patients were also more likely to have received neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to surgery.

In addition to Christian and Hoy, study participants include Dr. Mimi Borrelli and Dr. Victor King, both residents with the Brown University department of plastic surgery at Rhode Island Hospital; Thor Stead, a medical student at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Dr. Paul Liu, chairman of Lifespan’s plastic surgery department; and Dr. Jennifer Gass, chief of breast surgery at Women & Infants.

Study participants plan to compare their experiences at Women & Infants with the national trends that they identified.

Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.