Did anyone else see or read about this? Unbelievable, but wonderful, I think. Is it for real?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/nov/12/mastectomy-regrow-breasts-trial
Breast regrowth procedure trialled for mastectomy patients
Human trials to begin of surgical treatment that could allow women to regrow their breasts after a mastectomy
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James Meikle
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 November 2009 12.04 GMT
Article history
Mammogram scans for breast cancer. Photograph: Lester Lefkowitz/Getty
Scientists have developed a revolutionary surgical treatment that could allow women with cancer to regrow their breasts after a mastectomy.
Human trials for the procedure, which scientists hope could replace breast reconstructions and implants, will start within three to six months, it was revealed in Melbourne, Australia. It is likely to be three years before the technique is fully developed, researchers said.
The procedure involves inserting a biodegradable chamber into the woman's chest, contoured to match her natural breast shape and containing stem cells from her own fat tissue. These cells will divide and grow to recreate the permanent fat found in breasts.
Phillip Marzella, of the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery, said in an interview with ABC radio: "We are starting what is called a prototype trial in the next three to six months – a proof of principle trial with about five to six women just to demonstrate that the body can regrow its own fat supply in the breast. Rather than have silicone implant or more complex surgery, we implant them with a device that we've developed."
The first trials would involve a non-biodegradable chamber, Marzella said. "What we are hoping to do in the next two years is develop a biodegradable chamber so that the fat can grow inside the chamber and then the chamber will vanish naturally."
Two approaches were involved, he said. "One is actually that nature abhors a vacuum so the chamber itself, because it is empty, it tends to be filled in by the body on itself. The second approach we have also developed is a gel-like substance that we can inject inside the chamber and that can also stimulate that growth.
"We will know within three to four months that you are actually getting fat and we are hoping to get a fully formed fat within six to eight months."
Preclinical tests in animals encouraged the researchers to be confident about starting human trials. Similar techniques had been tried for the bladder, but this was the first time a procedure had been developed for the breast, Marzella said.
"We are hoping to move on to other organs using the same principle – a chamber that protects and contains cells as they grow and they restore their normal function. So it is a pretty major leap for regenerative surgery and medicine."
Marzella said the procedure could replace breast reconstructions and implants within three years if it worked.
"We are hoping to be with a biodegradable prototype within 24 months, so at the end of these three years we will have to have another half a dozen patients. Certainly [it] doesn't relieve [patients] of the trauma of the cancer but it could be offering patients an alternative and some sort of relief from the diagnosis of breast cancer to know that they can regrow the breast."
He said the procedure had potential for cosmetic surgery, although he did not see it being used for such purposes in the near future.
"Certainly the same principle can be used for defects, so people that might have lost a piece of a face or the end of the nose, we are thinking we can use the same technology using a biodegradable scaffold that can then be filled with the patient's own tissue and cells," he said.
"In terms of the cosmetic use, we probably don't envisage this in the next five to 10 years, so I think in the first instance [it is] very much reconstructive therapies that would benefit from it."
