Journal time!
This was in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal July 2023. “Risk of Breast Implant- Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma in Patients with Textured Tissue Expanders.” What’s the deal? We know textured implants can be associated with ALCL (a rare cancer). So most of us don’t use textured breast implants anymore, and many of the textured implants like Allergan’s Style 410 have been removed from the market.
But what about tissue expanders used in breast cancer reconstruction?
This was a study in a single institution retrospective from 1995-2016 to see if any of the breast cancer patients who had a tissue expander (which is removed usually after 6 months – 1 year to replace it with a permanent implant) develop ALCL cancer?
- 3310 patients had tissue expanders with exchange to smooth implant
- Average tissue expander exposure time was 6.7 months.
- Average follow up was 6.8 years
- No cases of ALCL were identified.
Conclusion:
No cases were seen, so it seems that temporary exposure to textured implants does not lead to ALCL.
My thoughts?
Good to see this. There were a lot of patients in this study. Also look at my other blogs on ALCL- Natrelle / Allergan with the higher texturing have a higher association. But the two things to remember: 1. ALCL is super rare, even in Natrelle implants 2. It seems to be associated with the length of time it was in. There is thought that it is related to biofilm and chronic inflammation.