International Journal of Molecular Sciences Review Lipofilling in Breast Oncological Surgery: A Safe Opportunity or Risk for Cancer Recurrence? Francesca Piccotti 1 , Ilona Rybinska 2 , Elisabetta Scoccia 3, Carlo Morasso 1 , Alessandra Ricciardi 1, Lorena Signati 4, Tiziana Triulzi 2 , Fabio Corsi 3,4 and Marta Truffi 1,* 1 Laboratorio di Nanomedicina ed Imaging Molecolare, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, 27100 Pavia, Italy;
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[email protected] (A.R.) 2 Molecular Targeting Unit, Department of Research, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy;
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[email protected] (T.T.) 3 Breast Unit, Surgery Department, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, 27100 Pavia, Italy;
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[email protected] (F.C.) 4 Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Cliniche “L. Sacco”, Università Degli Studi di Milano, 20157 Milano, Italy;
[email protected] * Correspondence: marta.truffi@icsmaugeri.it; Tel.: +39-0382-592219 Abstract: Lipofilling (LF) is a largely employed technique in reconstructive and esthetic breast surgery. Over the years, it has demonstrated to be extremely useful for treatment of soft tissue defects after demolitive or conservative breast cancer surgery and different procedures have been developed to improve the survival of transplanted fat graft. The regenerative potential of LF is attributed to the multipotent stem cells found in large quantity in adipose tissue. However, a growing body of pre- clinical evidence shows that adipocytes and adipose-derived stromal cells may have pro-tumorigenic potential. Despite no clear indication from clinical studies has demonstrated an increased risk of Citation: Piccotti, F.; Rybinska, I.; Scoccia, E.; Morasso, C.; Ricciardi, A.; cancer recurrence upon LF, these observations challenge the oncologic safety of the procedure.