ABC7’s The More in the Morning team spoke with Dr. Michael K. Kim, Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon, to discuss to discuss a type of lymphoma that is related to breast implants. He spoke about when the first case was discovered, the types of similarities between cases and more on the cancer.
Breast Implant-Associated Lymphoma
The risk that a woman with breast implants will develop a primary anaplastic large-cell lymphoma is estimated at 0.35 to 1 case per million persons per year. The incidence of implant-associated ALCL is thus very low, yet nevertheless markedly higher than that of other primary lymphomas of the breast. Because of the low case numbers, recommendations for the diagnostic evaluation and treatment of this entity have not been adequately evaluated. Treatment with primary curative intent for BIA-ALCL confers a much better prognosis than when performed for a systemic ALCL. Whenever a patient with a breast implant presents with a late-developing seroma, BIA-ALCL should be included in the differential diagnosis. This diagnosis is reportable.
Source: Julian Kricheldorff 1, Eva Maria Fallenberg, Christine Solbach, Claudia Gerber-Schäfer, Christoph Rancsó, Uwe von Fritschen. Mational Library of Medicine, Pubmed.com https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30373708/