• Eric Lavigne, Eric J Holowaty, Sai Yi Pan, Lin Xie, Paul J Villeneuve, Howard Morrison, and Jacques Brisson.
• Unité de Recherche en Santé des Populations, URESP, Centre de recherche FRSQ du Centre hospitalier affilié universitaire de Québec and Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. elavigne@uresp.ulaval.ca
• Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 2012 Oct 1;21(10):1868-76.

BackgroundCosmetic breast implants may impair the ability to detect breast cancers. The aims of this study were to examine whether implants and implant characteristics are associated with more advanced breast tumors at diagnosis and poorer survival.MethodsStudy population includes all invasive breast cancer cases diagnosed during follow-up of the large Canadian Breast Implant Cohort. A total of 409 women with cosmetic breast implants and 444 women with other cosmetic surgery were diagnosed with breast cancer. These women were compared for stage at diagnosis using multinomial logistic regression models. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used for breast cancer-specific mortality analyses. Comparisons were also conducted according to implant characteristics.ResultsCompared with women with other cosmetic surgery, those with cosmetic breast implants had at later stage breast cancer diagnosis (OR of having stage III/IV vs. stage I at diagnosis: 3.04, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.81-5.10; P < 0.001). A nonstatistically significant increase in breast cancer-specific mortality rate for women with breast implants relative to surgical controls was observed (HR = 1.32, 95% CI: 0.94-1.83, P = 0.11). No statistically significant differences in stage and breast cancer mortality were observed according to implant characteristics.ConclusionsAt diagnosis, breast cancers tended to be at more advanced stages among women with cosmetic breast implants. Breast cancer-specific survival was lower in these women although the reduction did not reach statistical significance.ImpactFurther investigations of the effect of breast implants on breast cancer prognosis are warranted.2012 AACR

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