Death risk ‘increased by breast implants’

Researchers in Canada examined a series of 12 studies and found women with the cosmetic implants had a 26 per cent increased risk of being diagnosed with a later stage of breast cancer than women without them.

They analysed a further five studies and found women with the implants had a 38 per cent greater risk of death from breast cancer than women without them.

The experts in Quebec say the results should be interpreted with caution but call for further investigations into the long-term health effects of breast implants.

More and more women are undergoing breast enlargement operations but some studies have suggested that implants can make it more difficult for experts to detect breast cancer at an early stage because they create shadows on breast X-rays that can obscure some tissue.

The authors said their work had limitations but added that “the accumulating evidence suggests that women with cosmetic breast implants who develop breast cancer have an increased risk of being diagnosed as having non-localised breast tumours more frequently than do women with breast cancer who do not have implants”.

Evidence also suggested that cosmetic breast implants “adversely affect breast cancer-specific survival following the diagnosis of such disease,” they added.