Cancer cases relating to breast implants have skyrocketed in the last year-and-a-half – as the companies responsible for the defective implants allegedly refuse to compensate those affected.
Cancers linked to breast implants have increased by 56.5 per cent in the last 18 months, mostly related to providers offering cheap implants after getting them at discount prices.
In that time, 72 women have contracted cancer related to their breast implants and three have died.
Many of those affected had implants put in after mastectomies and face dealing with another cancer scare.
Cancer cases relating to breast implants have skyrocketed in the last year-and-a-half – as the companies responsible for the defective implants allegedly refuses to compensate those affected (stock image)
Stacey Franks, 50, was told last month that she had cancer, 10 years after she had Allergan implants put in.
After her left breast swelled to double its size, an ultrasound showed the implant had ruptured.
Eight days after it was removed, the mother-of-two was told fluid around the implant had tested positive for a lymphoma.
The cancer had not spread, but she refused to get new implants, saying ‘vanity is not worth it’.
The experience cost her $7,700 in medical expenses and she lost a $2,000 deposit on a birthday holiday to New York.
The companies who supplied the implants are allegedly refusing to pay for corrective surgeries, which will cost between $6,000 and $10,000 for the women affected, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
Half of the 120,000 women who had breast implants in the six years from 2010 to 2015 were given Biocell devices made by Allergan and Silimed, which have a higher risk of cancer, according to Macquarie University plastic surgeon Professor Anand Deva and Associate Professor Mark Magnusson.
Their research found the risk of developing cancer is 23.4 times higher for women with the rough textured Silimed implant and 16.5 times higher for women with Biocell implants compared to those with smoother Siltex implants.
Cancers linked to breast implants have increased by 56.5 per cent in the last 18 months, mostly related to providers offering cheap implants after getting them at discount prices (stock image)
Together with Brazil, Australia has the highest rate of using the implants in the world.
The risk calculations the two professors came up with have been challenged by the Australasian College of Cosmetic surgery.
ACCS chief censor Dr Patrick Tansley said analysis of the data carried out by ‘the college and others’ found their claims to be ‘substantially incorrect’.
Medical watchdog Therapeutic Goods Administration has refused to ban the implants but has convened a panel to advise it.
Allergan said women given the Biocell implants do not need regular cancer screening, but that it’s up to the surgeon to discuss the risks of each implant type with their patients.
Professor Deva’s research suggests bacteria in the fluid around breast implants is causing the cancer.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Allergan and Silimed for comment.
Many of those affected had implants put in after mastectomies, and face dealing with another cancer scare (stock image)