Breast Implants Do Not Increase Cancer Risk

A long term follow-up study of Swedish women shows that cosmetic breast implants do not increase the risk of cancer.

Researchers at the International Epidemiology Institute (Rockville, MD, USA) followed 3,486 women in Sweden who received breast implants between 1965 and 1993. The average age of women at the time of implant was 32, and the mean follow-up period was 18.4 years. The researchers found that 53 of the women had developed breast cancer during the follow-up period. However, on the basis of standardized incidence ratios (SIRs), the researchers expected to find about 72 breast cancers. Half of the observed cancers occurred among women who were followed for at least 15 years.

With respect to cancer overall and all other specific cancer sites, including brain cancer and sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, no statistically significantly increase or decrease in SIRs was observed, with the exception of a two- to threefold excess of lung cancer among women followed for more than 15 years, which would be expected due to the high prevalence of smoking among the Swedish women with implants in the study. The study was published in the April 19, 2006, issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"After an average follow-up of 18 years, and a maximum follow-up of 37 years, we found that women who have undergone breast implantation have a reduced risk for breast cancer, most likely due to differences in lifestyle or reproductive characteristics. We also found no increased risk for brain cancer or for lymphoma, sarcoma, or multiple myeloma,” said Joseph K. McLaughlin, Ph.D., and colleagues.

In general, women who have breast implants give birth at younger ages, have a higher number of births, and a lower body mass index (BMI) than the general population. All of those shared characteristics could explain the lower risk of breast cancer observed in this study.



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International Epidemiology Institute