Breast implant might increase the risk of developing lymph cancer, according to a new study.
The study was conducted by researchers at the Medical University Vienna, the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research. They explained that Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma is a rare type of malignancy which was found in 71 women who underwent breast surgery.
According to the researchers, this particular type of cancer forms several years after surgery, in scar tissue around the implant. While two sub types of ALCL were previously known, the researchers have pointed out the existence of a third sub type.
In one sub type of ALCL tumor cells produce an abnormal protein. Women with protein-positive ALCL were said to have better outcomes. The protein anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is not produced by cancer cells in the second sub type.
According to the researchers, the tumor cells in the third sub type like the second type, do not produce ALK. "This is a previously unrecognized, new subtype of ALCL. We must now determine the exact causes behind its occurrence," one of the researchers, Lukas Kenner, from the Medical University Vienna said in a press release.
Furthermore, the team stated that the reasons for ALCL's association with implants remains unknown but cure often results with removal of implants.
"The actual reasons why implants can cause lymphoma remain unclear. 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. An abnormal immune response from the body could therefore be a cause of the cancer," they wrote.
The researchers said further studies are required to understand the impact of implants and dentures in other parts of the body.
