Mammary fat necrosis following radiotherapy in the conservative management of localized breast cancer: does it matter?
OBJECTIVE
Fat necrosis is a well-described and relatively common complication arising from post-lumpectomy irradiation of the breast, most commonly breast brachytherapy. We wish to assess the clinical significance of fat necrosis resulting from post-lumpectomy breast irradiation.


METHODS
We reviewed the literature to determine the overall incidence and significance of fat necrosis to determine whether or not fat necrosis poses a significant clinical problem.


RESULTS
Fat necrosis occurs in up to one-quarter of patients following post-lumpectomy breast irradiation. Only rarely is invasive intervention required however, it does significantly degrade the quality of all modalities of breast imaging.


CONCLUSIONS
Fat necrosis is a common complication of radiotherapy which rarely requires therapeutic intervention. However, post-therapeutic clinical imaging such as mammography, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging are affected which may result in additional diagnostic procedures up to and including biopsy.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, USA. mtrombet@wpahs.org
Mark
M
Trombetta
Vladimir
V
Valakh
Thomas B
TB
Julian
E Day
ED
Werts
David
D
Parda
D001706:Biopsy; D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods; D001940:Breast / Q000528:radiation effects; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005218:Fat Necrosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D015412:Mastectomy, Segmental; D012307:Risk Factors