[The adipose tissue transfer in the mammary parenchyma (part I): Review of the literature on modifications of the radiological images]

The adipose tissue transfer (ATT) in the mammary parenchyma is a subject of controversy and generates passionate debates in scientific meetings. So far, many phenomena remain unexplained. Among these phenomena, changes in mammogram images generated by the grafted adipose tissue and the interactions between the grafted adipose tissue and a clinically undetectable breast cancer are the most important. We will present a series of articles with a critical analysis of the scientific literature on each of these phenomena. This first article presents the review of the literature on modifications of the radiological images after ATT. Two types of images are most common in mammograms after ATT. These are oil cysts and microcalcifications. Regarding to the presented review of literature, there is not yet sufficient evidence to prove a similarity or not between these images generated by the ATT and those from a breast malignancy. Therefore, clinically, patients must be included in a prospective clinical trial and in terms of research, the first step should be an exhaustive description of radiological images after ATT and a comparison of these images to images of malignancy. So, it's important to include these patients in prospective protocols with close and long term follow-up.