Rare Lymph Cancer Seen In Women With Breast Implants

Findings published in the Journal Mutation Research show that women with breast implants could be at an increased risk for lymph cancer.

"This is a previously unrecognized, new subtype of ALCL. We must now determine the exact causes behind its occurrence," said study researcher Lukas Kenner, from the Medical University Vienna, in a news researcher.

This rare type of cancer, otherwise known as Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, has be documented in 71 women who have undergone breast surgery.

However, researchers from Medical University Vienna, the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research have found that the type of cancer can develop several years following surgery from a scar made around the insertion center for the implant. There are also two sub types of the ALCL that were previously known, researchers have pointed out the existence of a third sub type.

Though the reason for ALCL's association in implants remains unclear at this time, it can also result via implant removal.

"The actual reasons why implants can cause lymphoma remain unclear. While some patients were successfully treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy, the lymphoma in many cases subsided on its own following removal of the implant and the surrounding tissue. An abnormal immune response from the body could therefore be a cause of the cancer," they concluded.