A woman with textured butt implants developed a rare and deadly form of lymphoma, showing a new link between the implants and cancer, according to a new study.
The Food and Drug Administration was already looking into a connection between textured breast implants and anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), a rare kind of blood cancer. In February, the FDA said they’ve received 457 confirmed cases of the condition related to breast implants, and nine women in the U.S. have died.
This is the first time ALCL has also been linked to textured butt implants.
This new case study, published in Aesthetic Surgery Journal, found that a 49-year-old woman was diagnosed with the cancer about one year after she got bilateral textured silicone gluteal implants. She had ulceration and fluid in the area around her implants, according to Live Science.
But by the time doctors identified her cancer, it had already spread through her body, with masses in her lungs. She underwent aggressive chemotherapy, but died several months after her diagnosis.
The researchers, from the University of Southern California, said they cannot yet draw a direct line between the textured implants and ALCL, but this showed another association between the two. In 2017, 1,323 people in the U.S. received butt implants, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
More women than ever are getting their breast implants removed, and Dr. Marguerite Barnett, one of the nation’s top surgeons for removing implants or “explanting,” previously told PEOPLE that Breast Implant Associated-Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, or BIA-ALCL, is becoming a bigger concern.
“Initially, [BIA-ALCL] was said to be very rare, but as time goes by, they’re finding more and more cases,” she said. “It’s a serious tumor capable of killing people.”
The case study authors said that their findings warrant further research into the risk of cancer.
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