{"id":1509,"date":"2022-08-04T15:07:31","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T05:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/uncategorized\/breast-scaffold-surgery"},"modified":"2025-07-02T16:28:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:28:46","slug":"breast-scaffold-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/news\/breast-scaffold-surgery","title":{"rendered":"Metro North Health delivers world-first breast scaffold surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Metro North Health delivers world-first breast scaffold surgery<\/h1>\n
\"Metro

Patient Moana Staunton was the first person in the world to receive this surgery.<\/p><\/div>\n

A world-first surgery delivered by Metro North Health in Brisbane will pave the way for women globally requiring breast reconstruction with a safer alternative to silicone implants, leaving them with nothing but their own natural tissue within two years.<\/p>\n

The revolutionary procedure, based on decades of research, saw first clinical trial patient Moana Staunton have her silicone implants removed and replaced with a 3D printed bioresorbable scaffold, which was injected with her own fat cells. The scaffold, made from a 3D printed medical-grade polycaprolactone-PCL which will completely dissolve and metabolise in the body, was finessed between Metro North Health and German medtech company BellaSeno for months before being printed in Germany and sent to Brisbane for Moana\u2019s procedure. Director of the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Institute Owen Ung and Director of the Herston Biofabrication Institute Michael Wagels, both Metro North Health surgeons, joined forces for the ground-breaking procedure which was undertaken on 23 June 2022.<\/p>\n

Metro North Health\u2019s Professor Owen Ung said Moana was just one of many women who had experienced breast implant illness, noting a range of unexplained symptoms she believed were linked to her implants. \u201cIn Moana\u2019s case, she was experiencing dizziness and generally feeling unwell, and we\u2019ll often see patients who believe their silicone implants may be making them ill,\u201d Professor Ung said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not just those experiencing complications from their implants that will benefit, as we roll out our clinical trial in patients just like Moana.\u00a0 We will be moving into further studies for those who have experienced cancer, changing the lives of women who require a mastectomy and have limited reconstructive options until now. \u201cWe are still in Phase One of clinical trials, but this work has hugely promising implications for women all over the world.\u201d Metro North Health\u2019s Dr Michael Wagels said the work was made possible through years of research, first started at Queensland University of Technology. \u201cOur Herston Biofabrication Institute colleague and the Queensland University of Technology researcher Professor Dietmar Hutmacher has, over many years, been instrumental in developing the scientific approach \/foundation to get us to this point \u2013 the first successful realization of this ground-breaking research in an actual patient,\u201d Dr Wagels said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just the extensive research that has made this possible \u2013 we\u2019ve been aided by funding from a variety of our partners including BellaSeno, Metro North Health, RBWH Foundation, Department of Innovation, Tourism and Sport\u2019s Advance Queensland grant, a Global Innovation Linkages grant as well as imaging support from the Herston Imaging Research Facility.<\/p>\n

Mohit Chhaya, Co-Founder and CEO of BellaSeno, said the regenerative breast scaffold procedure was an exciting milestone in the group\u2019s plans to ultimately design and manufacture these novel implants in Australia. \u201cOur goal is to further advance novel products in the field of natural tissue and bone reconstruction, working with our key partners in Australia such as Metro North Health,\u201d Dr Chhaya said. “This key milestone would not have been achievable without the outstanding efforts of the entire BellaSeno team and our scientific advisors over the past five years.” Queensland Innovation Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the technology once again demonstrated the quality of Queensland innovation and science. \u201cI\u2019m proud to say the Queensland Government recognised the potential of Professor Hutmacher\u2019s project in 2016, providing him with over $700,000 in Advance Queensland funding,\u201d Mr Hinchliffe said. \u201cWhen we talk about the innovation economy, this what we are talking about. It\u2019s projects like these that not only improve lives, but also have very real benefit in opening up new business and industry opportunities in the state. \u201cThis is exactly the intent of our new Advance Queensland \u2013 Innovation for a Future Economy Roadmap, which we launched just last week.\u201d Metro North Health\u2019s Phase One clinical trial will recruit 15 \u2013 20 eligible patients and will run until they each have received two years of follow up.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A world-first surgery delivered by Metro North Health in Brisbane will pave the way for women globally requiring breast reconstruction with a safer alternative to silicone implants, leaving them with nothing but their own natural tissue within two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":1510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-1509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-feature-1"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1509"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2496,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions\/2496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/cbci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}