A British breast cancer survivor has suffered what can be a first type surgery: a breast transplant, using its own healthy breast tissue. And it was all his idea.
Nicola Purdie, 38, was first diagnosed with breast cancer by 2020, after which he had five months of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction.
When his cancer returned a couple of years later, in one chest, his treatment plan seemed quite different.
“This is not the mastectomy of the mill we are talking about,” said his breast surgeon, Dr. Reza Arya, at the BBC.
Purdie’s first cancer attack was only on his right chest, but due to family history he decided to commit the safe side with a double mastectomy.
His reconstructive surgery involved a diep (lower epigastric perforator), in which the skin and tissue are taken from the stomach.
The advantage of this procedure is that the breasts are still “natural”: it is not necessary to change implants, and they were grown and reduced with weight loss.
In 2024, he was healthy and five months pregnant with his second child when he discovered a blow to his right chest: the cancer returned.
The tests were limited due to their pregnancy, although it had a lumpectomy to eliminate what they knew safely was cancer.
After his son won soon, other tests confirmed that he actually had several cancerous tumors, both on the skin and in a ganglion.
“The skin was the only thing in the breast tissue he left after my previous reconstruction,” he told the Swansea Bay University Health Board.
Purdie was re -submitted to chemotherapy, taking care of his newborn.
“I ended in February of this year, and then I had what we call the” crazy idea, “he said.
For the next step of their treatment plan, doctors suggested the elimination of the entire breast infected with cancer, as well as the reconstruction of the LD flap. The Latissimus dorsi, a flat muscle that covers a part of the back and to the side, turned to replace the eliminated breast tissue.
But Purdie did not like this approach. For one, his aunt had had the procedure and the recovery was tough. It could also limit its future movement.
“All of these issues are now clear to us, but at that time the idea was so out of the box that I needed to gather my thoughts.”
Dr. Reza Arya
For the other, it would leave it flat on the one hand, because there would be not enough skin to stay an implant. Purdie wanted symmetry, so he would mean removing his left chest.
So he asked his doctor: What if they did another diep flap as he had done before, but this time he used healthy left chest fabric to rebuild the right?
“I remember [Dr. Reza Arya] Sitting in his chair, “said Purdie.” I could see the Cogs. “”
This is because the idea was new in Arya, and the medical field in general.
“All of these issues are now clear to us, but at that moment the idea was so out of the box that I needed to gather my thoughts,” he said.
“I was analyzing what the benefits and disadvantages could be before I thought if it would be technically feasible.”
“I had never seen or heard of a procedure that was spoken or published.”
He had conversations with other doctors, but no one was sure if he would work.
“We did not know if the ships were still working, if the flap had to be disassociated to be transferred and, if so, if the boats could resist the microsurgery again,” Arya said.
“We traveled the advantages and cons of all the different options,” Purdie added, “but something told me that because I had this idea, there was a reason why I had had it. I needed to plow and trust the process.”
He decided to move forward with seven -hour surgery and the tests performed later did not show signs of cancer. After radiation, you will get an implant on this side and, due to the procedure, there is enough skin for it.
Arya calls surgery a “first world” and says he will soon publish about it.
“I think this would help others with this rare question: Can a breast diep flap be reused?
Purdie, meanwhile, is excited that they found a solution that “has allowed me to keep the woman”
“I would have stayed with a single breast permanently. Radiotherapy would damage the skin and tissues too much to allow an implant, so that this surgery gives me the opportunity to have two breasts,” he said. “I’ve been very lucky.”
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Image Source : nypost.com