Commentary on: Interaction Between Breast Cancer Cells and Adipose Tissue Cells Derived from Fat Grafting.

Abstract

We appreciate the opportunity to comment on the article entitled “Interaction Between Breast Cancer Cells and Adipose Tissue Cells Derived from Fat Grafting” by Massa et al.1 The authors investigated a controversial topic that has polarized plastic surgeons for many years, namely the role of fat grafting in carcinogenesis. In a common in vitro model, undigested adipose tissue, cells of the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) with or without induction of adipogenic differentiation, were cocultured with three different breast-cancer cell lines in a Boyden chamber. Bone-marrow-derived stroma cells served as a control. The results show that the proliferation of all three cancer cell lines was induced by whole adipose tissue, in vitro differentiated adipocytes, and, to a lesser extent, noninduced SVF cells. The present study represents an effort to shed light into the pathomechanisms of adipose tissue-fueled cancer development. We have recently shown that adipose tissue not only promotes breast cancer but also other cancer entities such as melanoma in a comparable experimental setting.2 It is a feasible approach to compare the cancer-proliferative character of adipose tissue, differentiated adipocytes, and SVF cells and to compare them to a nonadipogenic control. Although the present study certainly enriches our knowledge of the carcinogenicity of fat, we want …