Grants We Funded
Grant applicants for the 2023 cycle requested a total of nearly $4 million dollars. The PSF Study Section Subcommittees of Basic & Translational Research and Clinical Research evaluated nearly 140 grant applications on the following topics:
The PSF awarded research grants totaling over $1 million dollars to support nearly 30 plastic surgery research proposals.
ASPS/PSF leadership is committed to continuing to provide high levels of investigator-initiated research support to ensure that plastic surgeons have the needed research resources to be pioneers and innovators in advancing the practice of medicine.
Research Abstracts
Search The PSF database to have easy access to full-text grant abstracts from past PSF-funded research projects 2003 to present. All abstracts are the work of the Principal Investigators and were retrieved from their PSF grant applications. Several different filters may be applied to locate abstracts specific to a particular focus area or PSF funding mechanism.
The Impact of Chest Wall Irradiation on Long-Term Patient Satisfaction and Health-Related Quality of Life Following Tissue Expander/Implant Reconstruction
Peter Cordeiro MD, FACS
2006
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Directed Research Grant
Breast (Cosmetic/Reconstructive)
Recent trials have demonstrated superior locoregional control, disease-free survival, and overall survival in node-positive breast cancer patients who have undergone radiation in addition to mastectomy and chemotherapy (Gebski 2006). Based on these results, early-stage breast cancers are being treated with adjuvant radiotherapy in an attempt to increase survival. The effects of radiotherapy on outcomes after implant-based breast reconstruction can, however, be profound. To date, researchers have focused on the evaluation of post-operative complications such explantation and capsular contracture (Benediktsson 2005). While these are important issues, the overriding goal of postmastectomy reconstruction is to improve quality of life and to satisfy the patient with respect to her body image. Thus, it is critical that both the patient and surgeon have a clear understanding of the impact radiation treatment may have on body image and quality of life following expander/implant reconstruction. Unfortunately, there is little scientific literature that evaluates these outcome measures in this patient population. The objective of this project is to evaluate the impact of radiation treatment on both patient satisfaction and health-related quality of life following tissue expander/implant reconstruction. Patients who have completed two-stage, expander/implant reconstruction at least one year prior to study initiation will be eligible for participation. Three patient subgroups will be further identified as follows: i) patients with a history of pre-operative, chest wall irradiation follow who have completed tissue expander/ implant reconstruction (TE/I), ii) patients who completed TEll reconstruction and received post-operative, adjuvant radiotherapy, and iii) patients who completed TE/I reconstruction without radiation. A panel of self-administered questionnaires will be administered at one time point, including the 'MSKCC BREAST-Q' and the 'EORTC - Breast .Cancer Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire'. Survey subscale scores for each subgroup will be calculated and compared. Statistical regression techniques that adjust for potentially confounding variables such as age, timing of procedure and length of follow-up, will be employed.