“It shocked me to think that it didn’t exist yet. Behind his office in Place Grimaldi, in Nice, Julien Montenero retraces the history of his company Realetee and the creation of the world’s first custom-made external breast prostheses.
Since April 2022, it has been offering patients affected by breast cancer and who have recourse to a mastectomy, these temporary or permanent prostheses, reproduced identically to the removed breast. Weight, shape, skin color, details of veins or moles, even the areola and the nipple and their sensations, everything is there “so that the woman finds what the disease has taken away from her. “. This “revolution” is possible thanks to 3D printing and it is a world first.
“We adapt to all”
The founder, also an epithetist, who creates facial prostheses, had the idea because “it’s been fifteen years since[il] do [t] that “. “I told myself that if I could do it for noses, there was something to be done for breast prostheses, develops the professional. Currently, they are standardized, heavy and look more like triangular pockets than breasts. This means that for years, operated women have turned away from it and other solutions have been born such as repair tattoos and all kinds of adapted clothing. With 3D, we can do tailor-made. This means that the patient can use exactly the same underwear as before the ablation. I noticed how much it meant to her. And then, it is above all very important to finally provide this solution because there are as many breasts as women and we adapt to all of them. »
Realetee is above all a personal story for Julien Montenero. “I saw my aunt twenty-seven years ago having one breast after another removed to beat her cancer. She had difficulties in her posture, particularly in society, he continues. She did not feel comfortable socially. For twenty years, it has been in my head. The trigger was when my friend Géraldine told me during the first confinement that she was also attacked by a tumor. I asked him if he wanted to be my guinea pig in a way to develop this concept and allow the next patients to find their anatomy after the hard ordeal of cancer. »
Accessible regardless of resources?
Eighteen patients have already benefited from these prostheses. “I had five more calls this morning,” says the founder. And there must be about fifteen projects pending. For the moment, this revolution is only accessible to “well-to-do” people. “We are in the process of standardization with the High Authority for Health so that this type of prosthesis is fully supported, specifies the Niçois. All facial prostheses are, there is no reason that this is not the case for these. As we use a particular technology, it takes time, but my objective is to allow all women, whatever their resources, to have access to these prostheses. He adds: “Prices range from 1,500 to 4,000 euros, which can be explained in particular by the use of high-performance machines to obtain this impressive result. »
Indeed, to create these tailor-made breasts, Julien Montenero uses the latest technologies, from the hardware to the software used. The first step is to scan the breast which is intended to be removed using a kind of non-invasive camera, “inspired by a device used in archeology”, confides the epitheist. “We make this print in thirty seconds. In the case where the mastectomy has already been performed, we use the mirror method and we base ourselves on the remaining breast to create the other, ”he further specifies.
Once modeled, it prints in 3D what the prosthesis will look like, this is the prototype. “At this stage, we see with the patient the final details so that everything corresponds to her and to give her the most accurate reproduction. We make a mold of it where we insert the medical silicone that we then work on by hand. » To the final external prosthesis is added an adhesive. “Depending on the person’s sweating, they can go running and practice all kinds of activities with their prosthesis,” says Julien Montenero. Some don’t have to wear a bra either. »
Support even before the operation
To be able to reproduce as well as possible, he must take the impression before mastectomy. For this reason, he approached the Lacassagne center in Nice, a reference in the fight against breast cancer. “We are convinced that by offering this solution to the patient even before the surgery, she will be able to understand the disease in a different way and that, psychologically, the prosthesis also provides support, underlines the professional. We want to be able to support the patient as best as possible. »
For now, he estimates the lifespan of a prosthesis between three to five years. A data on which he hopes to be able to move forward. “By putting the patient at the center of the process, we get feedback and we can improve what we propose,” he says. In his next goals, he would like to be able to reproduce the internal texture on the external prosthesis and thus allow each part of the breast to be felt “as if for real”.