Thank you for your question.
You submitted a question regarding the safety of PRP and you're asking this question in
the context of having been diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago.
Well, I can certainly give you a lot of information about my experience with PRP.
I'm a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and a Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic and
reconstructive surgeon.
I’m also a specialist in a non-surgical hair loss treatment we've developed called
Hair Regeneration, which PRP is a very important part of that treatment.
So, as a specialist in facial rejuvenation, we use platelet-rich plasma in our practice
a lot.
We use it everyday, we use it several times a day.
And just to give you some ideas or understanding of what the science is and why it is as safe
as it is, platelet-rich plasma is essentially a concentration of the healing and growth
factors necessary for wound healing.
So that when you get a cut, there are cells in your bloodstream called platelets, and
the process of creating a little scab and then eventually the skin healing over, those
healing growth factors are necessary.
These growth factors build collagen and build blood supply.
Now, this technology was first introduced by oral surgeons who were using this platelet-rich
plasma for the purpose of improving the blood supply in the bone so that they could put
dental implants more successfully.
It then went on to be used a lot in Orthopedic surgery, and then eventually we started using
it in aesthetics.
Now the challenge with platelet-rich plasma and its acceptance in the aesthetic community
is, because it's your own blood, and it's a natural material that comes from you and
it doesn't come from a pharmaceutical company or a laser company, it doesn't get the same
kind of promotion and spread of knowledge about it.
There are a lot of questions and inconsistencies in information about what it can or cannot
do.
So to begin with, as far as safety is concerned, it’s very safe—it’s your own blood.
It’s spun down and the part of your blood that we need to help improve skin quality,
improve scars—just to give you a kind of breakdown as to what we use it for, we use
platelet-rich plasma as part of our treatment in our formulation for non-surgical hair loss
treatment which we call Hair Regeneration, for which we treat patients who come to us
from around the world.
We use it whenever I do eyelid surgery to help improve skin quality and texture, we
use it whenever we do laser procedures such as fractional CO2 laser, we use it for acne
scars, we use it for wrinkles, we use it for other types of scars.
So you can imagine that this is a very versatile tool in our armamentarium and it comes from
the patients.
So we’ve had patients who have had concerns about putting something that's not theirs
in their body—so they love platelet-rich plasma.
It's a great way to help maintain and improve complexion.
You know people search for this glow and no injectable and commercial filler or cream
can create that type of glow.
But with platelet-rich plasma, because it stimulates blood supply, it's been my observation
that getting this bright glow to the skin is something that is really one of a kind
for platelet-rich plasma.
Our patients come back all the time and say that their friends and family keep wondering
why they look better, why they look younger, and their skin really does well with it.
In fact, we’ve actually helped helped patients who’ve had complications and problems with
infections and other challenges in their face, and where they've lost a lot of tissue and
lost a lot of volume, we use platelet-rich plasma to help improve the quality of the
skin.
Because the wound healing concept is basically translated and transferred into this rejuvenation
application.
So, as far as the breast cancer is concerned, getting platelet-rich plasma into the skin
of your face in no way would impact the natural balance in terms of the remission of your
breast cancer—it won't stimulate cancer cells to grow elsewhere.
It works locally, and it’s natural, it’s from your own body.
So I think you can safely pursue platelet-rich plasma in whatever way that you want to have
it applied and learn about what it can and cannot do.
It's not the perfect treatment for everything.
It doesn't replace fillers such as Juvederm, Restylane, Radiesse, etc., but it has a very
important part in our practice and all kinds of modalities I described earlier.
So I hope that was helpful and I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you for your question.