Scientists at the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery in Melbourne, Australia, are developing an implantable device that they hope will regenerate lost breast tissue. In The Daily Telegraph, Bonnie Malkin writes:
Link via Popular Science | Image: NASA
During the world-first trial surgeons will implant a chamber containing a sample of the woman's fat tissue into the chest, which will act a "scaffolding" into which new breast tissue will grow.
"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," Dr Marzella said.
"Nature abhors a vacuum, so the chamber itself, because it is empty, it tends to be filled in by the body."
Dr Marzella said the new breasts would feel normal to the patient.
The trial is believed to be just the second time in the world tissue engineering has been carried out in a human.
Link via Popular Science | Image: NASA
I know someone who had a double mastectomy as a way to prevent breast cancer. She had one of the cancer genes (I can't remember if it was BRCA-1 or BRCA-2) so the doctors said that her chance of getting breast cancer was 60-80% (compared to the average population, whose chance of getting breast cancer is only around 12%). Her mother and grandmother had both passed away from cancer so this was something she felt she should do to survive.
She also had implants done for her reconstruction. The implants go under the chest muscles and she was disappointed because the implants feel really hard. They just don't have the same kind of softness that natural breasts do. The rigidity might be due to the muscle or maybe the firmness of the gel implant.
I'm not sure how much women know about what to expect after breast reconstruction but I'm glad that scientists are working on a way to help them feel more comfortable and more natural.
I’ve had one breast removed and reconstructed and although I am very happy with the results I do sometimes wonder if, when the day come to have the implant replaced, if scientists won’t have figured out how to fabricate a droopy looking fake one.
In the meanwhile, I just tell people “it’s the perky one now.” :- )
The pig bladder stories I've heard were about re-building the esophagus after esophageal cancer and rebuilding the tip of a finger that had been cut off in a woodworking accident. My question at the time was, "what about breasts?"