What you need to know about Breast Implants and Breast Cancer.

While at a recent conference, one of my colleagues told me a very sad story about a patient of hers who had silicone breast implants for many years. The patient had palpated a lump in one of her breasts over one year ago. Her mammogram and breast ultrasound at that time were negative. It was thought the abnormality was possibly related to inflammatory changes due to a leak in the silicone implant. Long story short this woman unfortunately ended up with a 4 cm breast mass one year later which turned out to be an invasive ductal breast cancer. She was diagnosed with stage 4 disease which meant widespread metastases. Had this cancer been picked up earlier when she first discovered the palpable abnormality, she would have had a much better prognosis and chance of survival. According to the American Society of plastic surgeons, breast