Breast implants can cause cancer

New cancer in women with breast implants

03/20/2015

After the silicone implants scandal of the French manufacturer PIP in 2011, breast implants are again suspected to be hazardous to health. While low quality silicone in the pillows has become a health risk at the time, a new type of cancer associated with breast implants is currently causing great concern. The lymphatic gland ALCL is said to be rare, but the health authorities in France are now considering a general ban on implants.

Several cancer cases in recent years
French health authorities are considering a general ban on these implants, according to AFP news agency, because of the conspicuous increase in a specific type of cancer in women with breast implants. „There was a first case in 2011, then two in 2012, four in 2013 and eleven in 2014. A human died“, said the vice-director of the French Drug Safety Authority (ANSM), François Hébert, the newspaper „Le Parisien“ With. Looking at the breast implants, he added: „If we have to take action, if we have to ban it, then we will do it.“

New cancer only in women with breast implants
Only recently had the French Cancer Institute sounded the alarm. Experts pointed to a new type of cancer, lymph node cancer (LAGC-AIM), which has been implicated in breast implants. As „Le Parisien“ reported that there are already 173 cases worldwide. However, there is not a single case in women who do not have a breast implant. Experts are therefore in favor of having the new disease listed on the World Health Organization (WHO). In France, women and doctors are now being alerted to the new risk. „We are particularly attentive to the matter of breast implants because women's health is at stake“, explained Hébert. An expert panel is planned for the end of March.

Stricter controls since scandal
The French experts exchanged aloud „Le Parisien“ also with their colleagues in the US. Fourteen of the 18 cases in France, according to the French Drug Safety Authority, have occurred in prostheses from a particular company. However, controls in their laboratories have so far yielded no abnormalities. It is said that the controls have been tightened in France since the scandal involving the inferior breast implants of the southern French company PIP. The company had sold hundreds of thousands of implants worldwide that were filled with cheap industrial silicone rather than the custom silicone. According to the information, these pillows tear faster and can cause inflammation.

Precautionary removal of the implants is not recommended
However, the PIP implants never showed a generally increased risk of cancer. The scandal was set in motion by the case of a woman in November 2011, who had the new cancer that was now under investigation. Thousands of women in Germany are also affected by the scandal. Although only a relatively few cases of the new cancer have occurred so far, the experts are still vigilant. The French Cancer Institute currently estimates the risk over a period of ten years at one to two women per 10,000 breast implant carriers who develop this type of cancer. In their expertise, the specialists also emphasize that at the moment they do not recommend a precautionary removal of all breast implants.

Subspecies of a rare but malignant lymphoma cancer
An international research group reported last year, after analyzing numerous studies and data available worldwide, that breast implants can trigger a new subtype of the rare but malignant lymphoid malignant lymphoma (ALCL). ALCL usually affects lymph nodes in the skin, lungs, liver, and soft tissue, but not those in the chest. According to the scientists, ALCL is almost exclusively available in patients with breast implants in the chest area and developed around 10 years after implantation. The tumors grew in the scar tissue around the implant. However, the researchers said at the time that the real reasons why implants can cause lymphoma are still unclear. (Ad)