Risk of acute large cell lymphoma of the breast in women with breast implants

A topic related to late effects of cancer treatment concerns our research related to breast implants. In 2008 we reported the first epidemiological study demonstrating that breast implants are associated with a strongly increased risk of a rare type of breast lymphoma, i.e. anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL) (De Jong et al, JAMA 2008). We confirmed these results in a much larger nationwide study. While the relative risk associated with implants was high (RR>400), cumulative risks of breast-ALCL in women with implants are low, i.e. 82 per million at 70 years (de Boer et al, JAMA Oncol, 2018).

Recently, we showed that women with BRCA 1/2 mutations and implants have an increased risk to develop breast ALCL. (de Boer et al, Blood, 2020)