title: Aesthetic result among breast cancer patients undergoing autologous breast reconstruction versus breast conserving therapy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Following breast-conserving surgery or mastectomy followed by autologous breast reconstruction, breast cancer patients were studied to discover their satisfaction with the aesthetic results of the two treatment strategies.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and thirty-four breast cancer patients were included in this study. Sixty-four underwent breast-conserving surgery followed by radiotherapy. Mastectomy was performed in 70 patients with immediate or late reconstruction. To evaluate the quality of the aesthetic results in both groups we designed a questionnaire assessing different cosmetic categories.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients in both therapy groups showed a very high satisfaction with their cosmetic results; the patients undergoing breast reconstruction were even more satisfied than the patients who had breast-conserving therapy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrated that breast reconstruction with autologous tissue offers an opportunity to support patients with advanced breast cancer who were confronted with mastectomy, showing a high degree of satisfaction with the cosmetic results.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany. darius.dian@med.uni-muenchen.de
authors.forename: Darius
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dian
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schwenn
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mylonas
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Janni
authors.forename: Fritz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jaenicke
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Friese
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D004954:Esthetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016462:Mammaplasty / Q000379:methods*; D015412:Mastectomy, Segmental; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous