9 Deaths Are Linked to Rare Cancer From Breast Implants -<br />By DENISE GRADYMARCH 21, 2017<br />A rare cancer first linked to breast implants in 2011 has now been associated with nine deaths, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.<br />D.A., Stephanie Caccomo, said Tuesday’s announcement was made because “in 2016, there were several advances in the description of the disease<br />and treatment recommendations, including recognition of the disease by the World Health Organization and publication of diagnosis and treatment guidelines by the Plastic Surgery Foundation and National Comprehensive Cancer Network.”<br />A version of this article appears in print on March 22, 2017, on Page A20 of the New York<br />edition with the headline: Nine Deaths Tied to Rare Cancer From Breast Implants.<br />In cases linked to implants, this rare form of cancer grows in the breast, usually in the capsule of scar tissue that forms around an implant.<br />The deaths were not caused by breast cancer, the agency said, but by a rare malignancy in the immune system, anaplastic large-cell lymphoma.<br />About 290,000 women in the United States had implants for breast enlargement in 2016,<br />and 109,000 received them for reconstruction after breast cancer, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
