Cancer scare for women with faulty breast implants

Paris, Dec 31: With France caught in a medical scare after it was found that the faulty breast implants could cause cancer, the French health authorities confirmed their worst fear. As many as 20 cases of cancer were uncovered among women who allegedly underwent the faulty French-made breast implants.

This revelation came at a time when France’s state health insurance fund stated that it had filed a fraud complaint against manufacturer Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) that is alleged to have sold hundreds of the faulty implants. The link between the faulty implants and cancer has not been established so far.

According to French consumer health agency AFSSAPS, they have registered 15 cases of breast adenocarcinoma, the most frequent form of breast cancer; one case of breast lymphoma; two cases of other lymphoma; one case of lung cancer; and one case of acute myelogenous leukemia in women with the implants as of Dec 28.

French officials had earlier advised as many as 30,000 women to remove the PIP implants fearing rupture rather than any cancer scare. AFSSAPS stated, “No link has to this day been established between cases of cancer and having PIP implants."

Health officials claimed that eight cases of cancer had been registered in women with the implants, including one woman who died from a rare form of large cell lymphoma.

AFSSAPS also stated that 1,143 ruptures and 495 inflammatory reactions in PIP implants have been registered so far. It has been reported that as many as 300,000 and 400,000 women in 65 countries from Europe to Latin America have received implants made by PIP. PIP is considered the world's third-largest producer of silicone implants.

PIP was eventually shut down and its products banned in Apr 2010 after it was found that they were using non-authorised silicone gel that causes abnormally high implant rupture rates.

OneIndia News