Breast Cancer More Deadly For Women With Implants, New Study Finds

A new study suggests that breast cancer patients who have cosmetic implants are more likely to die from their disease than those who do not.

Women with breast cancer who had breast implants were found to be at a 38 percent higher risk for death from the disease, compared to those women who did not have implants, according to Eric Lavigne, PhD, from Laval University in Quebec and colleagues.

"Better understanding of the detection of breast cancer and survival patterns following diagnosis of breast cancer among women with implants will aid in giving clear information on the consequences of breast augmentation surgery to these women and their physicians," the researchers wrote.

"The fact that implants may interfere with the early detection of breast cancer is particularly relevant and carries with it important clinical and public health implications."

Women with cosmetic breast implants were also found to be 26 percent more likely to have a non-localized stage of breast cancer than women without implants.

But despite these findings, researchers who worked on the report still emphasize that further studies must be conducted in relation to breast implants and their impact on breast cancer screening.

"Concern remains that implants may impair the ability to identify breast cancer at an early stage by mammography because cosmetic breast implants are radio-opaque, impairing the visualization of breast tissue with mammography and making detection of breast cancer at an early stage more difficult," the research team wrote.

Breast tissue is sometimes pulled over and in front of an implant during a mammography to improve visualization, but this technique still leaves about one-third of the breast ineffectively imaged, MedPage Today reports.

While previous studies have not associated cosmetic implants with breast cancer implications, the team of researchers still thinks that a possible link exists between the two.

The study's findings, published in the journal BMJ, were based on data collected from 12 cross-sectional studies, encompassing 28, 924 women, which evaluated breast cancer stage distribution with and without breast implants.