Neopec, the experimental stem cell breast-growing technique has scientists poised to begin revolutionary surgery that will enable and offer hope to 5,000 Australian breast cancer victims, who lose their breasts to cancer each year, to be able to re-grow them.

Thee world-first trial initiating a change in the cosmetic surgery industry will allow women to grow bigger, but natural breasts, with the technique replacing breast reconstructions and implants within years.

In the trial, the second time in the world of tissue engineering, fat cells will be implanted by scientists from Melbourne’s Bernard O’Brien Institute of Micro-surgery, which multiplying rapidly will be shaped into a breast lost during cancer surgery.

Prof. Wayne Morrison, a Director of Bernard O’Brien says using stem cells from our own fat for regenerating body parts is a big step forward on current repair or cover-up damage techniques.

If, the trial proves successful, after a three year trial the Neopec technology will be widely available to breast cancer patients, though it will probably be a decade before it can be used for cosmetic purposes.

The process involves surgeons implanting a biodegradable synthetic breast-shaped chamber beneath the skin on a woman’s chest and which acts as a scaffold for the new breast to grow in.

Then a blood vessel will be re-directed from the woman’s underarm through the chamber to a 5-ml piece of the patient’s own fat, which will spontaneously grow filling a fist-sized space, thus forming a new breast within the next four to six months.

On reaching the chamber the fat tissue will stop growing for ensuring the desired shape and size, with the chamber degrading after the breast is formed allowing for a simple operation.