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Move Over Victoria's Secret! Stem Cell Trials for Breast Enlargement

Thanks to Wesley Smith's Secondhand Smoke blog for point out this story from the Times Online, Stem Cells to Grow Bigger Breasts.

While the title is more than jumping the gun as trials are only underway in the UK using fat cells from women's stomachs then trying to coax them to grow again as mammary cells to help turn A cups into Cs, one can understand the excitement. Having already worked in women with breast cancer who had their breasts removed, the method is now being used in healthy women, says Times Online.

Here's the hitch: "The use of stem cells in healthy women undergoing cosmetic surgery is controversial. Medical bodies have warned that the breast enlargements should not be offered to healthy women until large-scale trials in cancer patients have shown that the new technology is safe and effective. The treatment is not yet routinely available to women solely for cosmetic purposes."

One can already hear the therapeutic misconception running wild even in this article in the Times Online. The very first line of the article calls these initial studies "a stem cell therapy". Women tired of padded bras and who have a poor self-image will be ready to leap into these trials. The key will be how to explain to them that this is research and not therapy, and once we get to the point of having therapies AND trials available at the same time for stem cell breast enhancement, how to know the difference.

Summer Johnson, PhD