Concern has been raised about the potential delay in
breast cancer diagnosis in the augmented breast. We linked a cohort of 2955 women, who received cosmetic
breast implants in Denmark during the period 1973-1997 with the Danish
Cancer Registry and the Danish
Breast Cancer Cooperative Group register. We identified 23 incident cases of invasive
breast cancer diagnosed subsequent to
breast implantation. We randomly selected 11 controls for each case from the Danish
Breast Cancer Cooperative Group's register, and obtained detailed information on all study subjects about surgery, histopathology and stage of
breast cancer at diagnosis, intended adjuvant treatment according to trial protocols and overall survival. We found that women with
breast implants on average were diagnosed with
breast cancer at the same stage as controls. Significantly more women with
breast implants had tumour cells in the
surgical margins according to the Danish
Breast Cancer Cooperative Group's data. There was no significant difference in overall survival between the two groups after an average of 6.4 years of follow-up. Based on this limited number of women with
breast cancer subsequent to breast augmentation,
breast implants do not appear to delay the diagnosis of
breast cancer, and no evidence of impaired survival after
breast cancer diagnosis in augmented women was found.