The issue of the potential impact of breast implants on causing systemic disease, specifically autoimmune problems, has been put to rest after many years of research and clinical studies. More recently, anectodal reports have arisen from the observation of a few women who have been diagnosed with lymphomas in or near the breast who also have had breast implants. This raises the theoretical question of whether there is any causal relationship between breast implants and lymphoma malignancies.
In a most recent paper in the March 2009 issue of the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the association of breast implants and lymphoma was investigated.. The authors reviewed the evidence from five long-term studies evaluating over 43,000 women with breast implants, some of whom had follow-up for up to 37 years for the incidence of lymphoma and other cancers. Their results found 48 cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma compared with 54 expected cases based on sample size and incidence of malignancy. None of the studies reported a primary lymphoma of the breast. They concluded that there is no increased non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma occurrence in women with breast implants.
This study was a necessary response to the question posed by these anectodal reports of lymphoma in breast implanted women. We are all too well aware, based on the purported association of autoimmune diseases and breast implants which is well chronicled in the past, of the potential hysteria caused by such reports. This report is a pre-emptive strike on this issue from gaining any momentum and women needlessly suffering worry and emotional distress. I applaud the authors for their work and forward thinking. It is a service to many millions of women around the world.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana