The new tie between a rare cancer and breast implants?

Ah, for all you educated women in Palo Alto who read the Wall Street Journal, an article on Jan 26 reported how “Implants, Cancer may be linked.”

The nitty gritty:

• ALCL- Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma
• Number of cases found: 34 women
• Number of women with implants: 5-10 million
• Risk in general population 1:500,000. 
• Women presented with pain, swelling, seromas (fluid collection) or lumps.  The cancer was reportedly in the capsule. (That fibrous reaction around the implant.)
• The FDA is stating the risk in breast implant women is 1: 83,000-1:270,000
• Interesting quote from article, “ Marcia Angell, a Harvard Medical School senior lecturer, wrote a book called “Science on Trial” in 1996 criticizing what she called a lack of evidence behind the assertions of implant risks. On Wednesday, she again warned against overplaying the danger.  “I’m extremely skeptical of the connection and concerned that the FDA is being alarmist. Even if this holds up, it’s such a tiny risk that I don’t think it should influence decisions on whether to have the implants,” she said in an interview. Ms. Angell has no known industry ties.

As one of the heads of our ASAPS society noted, breast implants are the most studied medical device in history.  This risk is incredibly low.  A bulletin was sent to all board certified plastic surgeons to send any capsule in a suspicious patient to pathology to study.

The sad thing about this “news” is it seems inflammatory.  As we all know, small numbers in studies aren’t a good predictor of anything.  So we will study this.  But as one blog pointed out, though it isn’t as rare as being struck by lightening, it is close.