With Breast Implants After Double Mastectomy, Woman Fears Another Cancer Diagnosis

Jan. 28, 2011— -- After hearing reports that breast implants may be linked to a rare form of cancer in some women, Susan (who asked to by identified by her first name only) was devastated.

"You have these implants; you get a second chance with a new set of breasts," said Susan, a Chicago native who got silicone implants in 2008 after a double mastectomy for breast cancer. "And now they're saying something may be wrong with them. What are we supposed to do?"

Susan is not alone. Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that saline and silicone implants may be linked to anaplastic large cell lymphoma -- a rare but aggressive form of lymphoma -- plastic surgeons nationwide have been bombarded with calls and e-mails from worried patients.

"In some ways, I think this can be seen as positive when these reports come out, because it heightens awareness of all cancers, period. And that's a good thing," said Dr. David Song, vice chair of surgery and chief of plastic surgery at the University of Chicago, who has spoken to many of his patients about the report. "But patients should not panic. We're talking about a very, very rare form of cancer."

Although most women get breast implants for cosmetic reasons, about 57,000 women in the U.S. have had reconstructive breast implantation, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

"I think if you look at the positives of reconstructive breast implantation compared to the possible negative of this extremely rare cancer, the positives are overwhelmingly striking," Song said. "It can restore a sense of self, a sense of femininity, a sense of normalcy that many women feel breast cancer robbed them of."