The researchers have concluded that breast implants may cause cancer.
Research from the Medical University Vienna, the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research cooperated for this study with scientists from Cambridge, Liverpool, Swansea and Australia and concluded that breast implants can cause a new subtype of the rare yet malignant lymphoma known as ALCL.
71 documented cases of patients with 'Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma' (ALCL) in which researchers suspected breast implants to be the cause, have been reported worldwide.
ALCL developed around ten years after the operation. The tumors grew in the scar tissue around the implant.
Among three million breast implants, there are between one and six reported cases of ALCL.
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.
The research was published in the journal Mutation Research.
