Women, shed belly fat for bigger breasts

London, March 30: For women seeking natural breast enhancements, a new research is offering a ‘more natural’ option: Stem cell therapy, which, the study researchers claim, could increase cup size while reducing stomach fat.

Researchers at Princess Grace Hospital in Britain claim to have come up with a treatment that they say would help women enlarge their breasts “naturally”, and eventually will overcome the need for artificial implants.

The procedure involves extracting stem cells from spare fat on the stomach or thighs and implanting them into a woman's chest. During the process, cells are isolated from the excess body fat and then the concentrated stem cells are mixed with another batch of fat before finally being implanted into the breast.

The treatment is a double boon for those women wanting to boost their bra size, as well as those keen on reducing stomach fat. According to the scientists involved in the study, it could take several months for the breast to grow to their new size and shape.

Professor Kefah Mokbel, a consultant breast surgeon at the London Breast Institute at the Princess Grace hospital and head of the project, said the therapy would benefit those who want to boost cup size but don’t want to go under the knife.

"This is a very exciting advance in breast surgery. Breasts treated with stem cells feel more natural because this tissue has the same softness as the rest of the breast," Prof Mokbel said. “Implants are a foreign body. They are associated with long-term complications and require replacement. They can also leak and cause scarring.”

The treatment is expected to be available for private patients within six months at a cost of $9,200.

Indeed, the cup size enhancement using stem cell therapy is a state-of-the-art technique, but it’s not a novel technique. Scientists in Glasgow are already using the therapy to repair the breasts of women who have had cancerous lumps removed.

Likewise, a separate programme in London will use the technique on healthy women seeking breast enlargement.

The same technique has already been used in Japan for the last six years to treat women suffering from breast deformities caused by cancerdefine treatment.

Prof Mokbel, who is also due to carry out the procedure with 10 women in May, said that the stem cell therapy by far may be suitable only for modest increases in breast size, but they will conduct research to ascertain whether larger augmentations can be achieved through this procedure.

“We are optimistic we can easily achieve an increase of one cup size. We can’t say yet if we can achieve more. That may depend on the stem cells we can harvest,” Mokbel said.