Don't look for a shop window on Rue Grimaldi in Nice… To find Realetee, you have to go up to an apartment on the 3rd floor.^e Upstairs: “This is more in line with what we offer; it’s more peaceful, out of sight,” Julien Montenero says with a warm welcome. In France, of the 22,000 women who undergo a mastectomy each year, only 30% subsequently have reconstructive surgery. What about the others? Using a 3D scan of the patient before her cancer surgery—or a mirror image if the procedure has already taken place—Realetee designs hyper-realistic external silicone prostheses. The Nice-based entrepreneur hopes that this solution, which faithfully reproduces the shape, texture, color, and anatomical details of the breast, will be recognized as a public service and fully integrated into healthcare systems: “We are seeking private and public support to make this innovation accessible to as many people as possible, because there is no innovation without funding.”

A digital fingerprint in 20 seconds

When Julien isn't making house calls, patients come to see him in Nice from all over France, Europe, and even the United States, in his workshop which feels more like a living space than a doctor's office. There, you'll find the moving photographs he's created on aluminum and quite a few books: an anatomy atlas, drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, and an exhibition catalog by the artist Ron Mueck. Next to the old barber's chair where he greets patients in the consultation room, and where he makes the final adjustments to the prostheses in the light of the azure sky, right down to their beauty marks, you'll find his palette of colors: yellow, pink, red, brown, and black. For Julien has this power to bring materials to life. "I started as a dental technician in Carros, then I went to Paris, where I wanted to work in film." Life then led me to become a prosthetist for disfigured faces in 2009, combining special effects techniques and reconstruction for patients who had suffered facial cancers, severe burns, terrorist attacks, or war injuries. My legitimacy comes from this: restoring an identity, a dignity,” adds the man who volunteers for Doctors Without Borders in Amman, Jordan.

Returning to the beach without any hang-ups

Having lost a family member to breast cancer, Julien had dreamed for years of creating this alternative: "We proceeded by making adjustments; there has been a lot of R&D since the first ones in 2022." This man from the French Riviera now uses his talent for creating realistic prostheses to improve the comfort, body image, and self-esteem of women who have been hurt by life. For now, patients finance their own prostheses. Thanks to the Antoine Lacassagne Cancer Center, headed by Professor Emmanuel Barranger, Realetee has established a partnership to allow 30 women to receive a free external prosthesis and to conduct a clinical study with the goal of making this treatment available to other patients. This is just the first step, and Julien Montenero is still working on it: "We are currently conducting research using CT scans to recreate the density of the internal parts of the breast, for an even more natural feel with the prostheses."