Case Report: Association between Breast Cancer and Silicone Breast Prosthesis

The health risks caused by silicone breast implants have been debated since the last century, demonstrating their safety and effectiveness. There is no known direct association with breast cancer, although isolated cases with anaplastic giant cell lymphoma are reported. We describe a patient with infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast, who underwent augmentation mastoplasty with breast implants 10 years earlier. We analyze a case of 64-year-old female patient with a history of augmentation mastoplasty is presented, who consults for retraction of the skin of the breast. On physical examination, there is retraction of the skin and an irregular 2.5 cm nodule in the super external quadrant of the left breast. Breast ultrasound, mammography, and simple chest CT were performed, reporting left breast cancer with metastases to the left axillaries nodes and intracapsular rupture of the left breast prosthesis. Ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology of the mammary nodule was performed, reporting positive for neoplastic cells. The intraoperative finding was a 3 cm tumor in the upper external quadrant of the left breast and the contained intracapsular rupture of the left breast prosthesis, performing lumpectomy with left axillary emptying and removal of both prostheses. The histological result reports infiltrating ductal carcinoma with metastasic axillaries lymphadenopathy and gigantocellular foreign body granulomatous reaction. It can be affirmed that patients with breast implants have a lower incidence of breast cancer than the general population.