Breast implant, connective tissue disease link still debated.(Gynecology)

One of the largest studies to examine the long-term health effects of cosmetic breast implants has found little evidence to advance the debate about whether implants are linked to connective tissue disease.

The retrospective cohort study by the National Cancer Institute was primarily designed to assess cancer occurrence and overall mortality patterns among implant recipients. Several published reports on that cohort showed no association between implants and subsequent risk of breast cancer or most other cancers.

However, a two- to threefold increase in the rates of respiratory and brain cancers and a four- to fivefold increase in suicide rates was found among women with implants, compared with control patients. (For references, see the NCI's fact sheet at http://www.nci.nih.gov/newscenter/siliconefactsheet/print?page=&keyword=).

Findings linking implants with connective tissue disorders (CTD), however, are far less conclusive. Given the diagnostic complexities of these diseases, excess risks, if they exist, may be beyond detection even in a study of this size," wrote principal author Louise A. Brinton, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute, Rockville, Md., (Am. J. Epidemiol. 2004;160:619-27).

"The design of the study did not enable us to derive any firm conclusions, but we were able to rule out very large increased risks," she told this newspaper.

Half the 7,234 breast augmentation recipients had received silicone implants, while 34% received double lumen implants, 12% received saline implants, and 4% received other or unspecified implant types.

The 2,138 controls were of similar age and had undergone other types of plastic surgery not involving silicone, such as abdominoplasty or liposuction; blepharoplasty or rhytidectomy; and rhinoplasty, otoplasty, mentoplasty, or genioplasty.