What did everyone think of the item in the news section of this site on 13th November about research being carried out into growing new breasts for women who have had mastectomies?
To be honest I had to double check the date to make sure it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke!
Love
Maude xx
I saw this on the BBC news the other evening, I thought it looked great if it works? Only time will tell though and as yet I don’t think it has been trialled on a human, only mice.
Apparently trials will be starting on humans within the next few months. I think it is all happening in Australia.
Love
Maude xx
I can appreciate it as a scientific advance, but frankly, and I’m sorry if I sound a bit sour, I’d be more interested in being able to regrow some lymph nodes, cure my bilateral lymphoedema and have two fully functioning arms again.
But given that reconstructive surgery increases the risk of developing lymhoedema, anything that reduces that has got to be a good thing.
X
S
Hi Bahons,
I don’t have lymphoedema, but have often thought that a lymph node reconstruction would be of greater practical importance to day to day life, since it can strike at any time, and wondered why there didn’t seem to be any medical focus on it.
Best wishes,
Christine
Hi,
Anything that can reduce the need for invasive surgery can only be good news for the people it is suitable for.
Personally, I have a very aggressive form of cancer and would be concerned about the prospect of regrowing the thing that I had my breast removed to get rid of. I don’t think any amount of reassurance from medics would make me consider it.
Someone else (Sorry, I forget who) asked if it would work for “padding out” people who had had a lumpectomy, which I think is an interesting point.
Jan xx
Hi there
Christine, there was a short news report a few years ago that some researchers had managed to frow new lymph nodes (it might have been just in mice - it often is, isn’t it?)…I kept something about it, must see if I can dig it out.
I agree, it’s nice to feel balanced and ‘whole’ and symmetrical again. And it’s more than nice; for many of us it’s essential. But a few precious lymph nodes would be so useful.
I think that, as mostly lay people, we get our news on medical updates from the Press. And the Press fills its newspapers with reports likely to increase sales. Anything with the word ‘breast’, let alone ‘breast cancer’ (I think it’s just all t***s anyway to some of these so-called ‘journalists’) will raise the number of copies sold.
I can’t imagine a headline on the front page of a paper along the lines of ‘Scientists regrow lymph nodes’. It wouldn’t mean anything to the public at large and let’s face it, in the cancer glamour stakes (that’s the wrong expression, but you’ll know what I mean) breasts beat lymph nodes (as well as a lot of other cancers) hands down.
X to all
S