Patients considering breast reconstructive surgery would benefit from an objective tool to assess breast appearance when making cancer treatment decisions, according to a recent study by biomedical engineers at The University of Texas at Austin.
Breast cancer specialists currently lack computer models or other tools to help women realistically visualize the aesthetic outcome of breast reconstruction surgery. This lack of standards makes it difficult for women to compare the expected aesthetic outcome of a mastectomy and other surgical choices or to know if a plastic surgeon shares the same aesthetic vision for a particular surgical approach. A computer-based tool that displays the desired breast outcome as a see-through template could also be developed to help surgeons shape the transplanted tissue to match the template. This template approach should reduce the need for women to undergo repeat surgeries for aesthetic reasons.
“As breast cancer detection and treatment continue to improve, we have to think beyond helping women survive, and include factors influencing their quality of life for what could be decades to come,” said Mia Markey, assistant professor of biomedical engineering. Markey led the photo-based study published in the January issue of Computers in Biology and Medicine.
In the study, three plastic surgeons used a subjective scale to evaluate photos of women’s breasts for ptosis (sagging). Each breast reconstruction specialist remained consistent throughout the evaluations. However, when Markey compared the specialists’ evaluations to each other, the results were moderately different.
In contrast, Dr. Markey and biomedical engineering student Min Soon Kim found that the surgeons and three non-physicians all remained consistent at rating ptosis when the researchers provided landmarks on women’s torsos to guide these objective evaluations. The improved results have led Markey's laboratory and plastic surgeon colleagues to begin developing computer software that can identify such landmarks and become a tool for rapidly evaluating the aesthetic outcomes of patients who have undergone breast reconstruction.
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About UT's Cockrell School of Engineering:
The University of Texas at Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering ranks among the top six public engineering schools in the United States. With the nation's fourth highest number of faculty elected members of the National Academy of Engineering, the School's more than 7,000 students gain exposure to the nation's finest engineering practitioners. Appropriately, the School's logo, an embellished checkmark used by the first UT engineering dean to denote high quality student work, is the nation's oldest quality symbol. The School maintains a Web site at http://www.engr.utexas.edu