Histological Findings of a Local Adipofascial Flap That Was Implanted during Breast Conserving Surgery

We report a patient with breast cancer whose breast was immediately reconstructed using a local adipofascial flap and was then subsequently resected 3 years after the original surgical procedure due to local recurrence. In order to achieve local control of the solitary recurrent lesion, we resected the remnant breast, which gave us a useful opportunity to examine the previously implanted flap histologically. A 33-year-old Japanese female was diagnosed with T2N0M0 breast cancer in the outer area of her left breast and underwent partial mastectomy with immediate reconstruction using a local adipofascial flap. The breast lesion was considered to be invasive ductal carcinoma, scirrhous carcinoma, lymphatic invasion+, venous invasion-, estrogen receptor+, progesterone receptor+, and HER2/neu-. Involvement was noted in three of the twenty-five resected axillary lymph nodes. She received adjuvant hormone therapy, but developed a solitary local recurrence of the skin forty-five months after the initial procedure, for which she received total mastectomy, systemic chemotherapy, and hormone therapy. During the histological examination of the local adipofascial flap that had been implanted into the partial breast defect, normal fatty tissue and the implanted fascia were seen at the implantation site. This is a rare report in which a local flap that was implanted during oncoplastic breast surgery was histologically examined.