i mP roving PaTien T care clinical TrialS neTWork the Clinical trials network (Ctn) is designed to be the leading facilitator of evidence-based medicine and plastic surgery clinical trials research. It is focused on improving the quality of care and patient safety. the charge of the Ctn is to build multi-center networks of leading clinicians and sites to identify and conduct clinical research in priority areas in plastic surgery. working in conjunction with the pSF’s research oversight Council, the Ctn identifies strategic research priorities suitable for multi-center clinical studies. the Ctn then develops and implements these research projects. over the past year, the pSF has allocated more than $420,000 to study issues that have an immediate impact on the clinical practice of plastic surgery through multi-center research initiatives. FaT graFTing To The breaST oncologic SaFeTy STudy Fat grafting to the breast is a procedure that shows great promise, although epidemiologic studies of the technique’s oncologic safety are lacking. to meet this need, the pSF, through the Ctn, developed the first rigorously designed epidemiologic study of this topic. It is evaluating a hospital-based population of stages I, II, and III breast cancer patients who had mastectomy with reconstruction, comparing the relative risk of breast cancer recurrence after autologous fat grafting to the breast compared to the risk for those who did not receive fat grafting. the project, “autologous Fat Grafting to the Breast and risk of Breast Cancer recurrence,” led by pIs Clara lee, MD and terry Myckatyn, MD, will determine if the use of autologous fat grafting to supplement post-mastectomy breast reconstruction is associated with an increased risk of local, regional, or distant breast cancer recurrence during the study period (2006 to 2011) and will compare them to a random sample of patients without recurrence as controls. the project is retrospectively collecting data from the following centers: MD anderson Cancer Center, university of Chicago, washington university in St louis, and Memorial Sloan kettering Cancer Center. Data collection is ongoing at this time. general regiSTry oF auTologouS FaT TranSFer J. peter rubin, MD, and Babak Mehrara, MD, serve as principal Investigators for the General registry of autologous Fat transfer (GraFt). this quality assurance registry, developed to determine the safety and efficacy of fat grafting to the breast, was initiated through the Ctn. the objective of this quality improvement initiative is to establish the first uS-based, nation-wide registry of fat grafting for aesthetic and reconstructive surgery. GraFt will be a central web-accessible national database in which participating clinical centers will contribute fat grafting cases performed for aesthetic or reconstructive breast surgery. patient demographics, procedural variables, complications, and incidence of new or recurrent breast cancers will be collected at established time points. In addition, GraFt will use the BreaSt-Q®, another pSF-sponsored project, to determine the impact of these procedures on patient reported outcomes and quality of life. GraFt will collect data for the purpose of providing insight into the safety of these procedures and to establish best practice guidelines that will have broad impact on the plastic surgery community. GraFt will be open to all board-certified plastic surgeons who wish to contribute their cases. Case accrual is anticipated to begin in Summer/Fall 2013. T h e P S F. o r g