CBS News: July 13, 2017.
[…] The American Society of Plastic Surgeons says around 550,000 women last year received breast implants, but the FDA published a report this year linking a rare cancer to the implants.
So far, there have been 359 reported cases globally, including nine deaths.
The risk is low, but one in 30,000 women with implants could develop it, including one patient who says she is battling the disease and her insurance company, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.
Kimra Rogers was shocked to find a tumor under her arm. […]
Then she learned it was cancer, possibly connected to the cosmetic breast implants she’d had put in 17 years ago. […]
It’s called breast implant-associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma, a rare cancer the FDA says can develop following breast implants, something doctors at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston have been studying for five years.
“This is a type of lymphoma. It is not a breast cancer. It’s actually a cancer that develops in the scar tissue around a breast implant,” said Dr. Mark Clemens. […]
But insurance companies don’t always agree to pay. Rogers says her insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana, denied payment for removal of her implants three times, telling her it was a contract exclusion because her implants were cosmetic. […]
But Dr. Clemens said, “We can’t wait months or years till an insurance company say, ‘okay, we’re gonna cover it.'” […]
But if you notice any changes in the implants or your breasts, such as swelling, head to your doctor’s office as soon as possible to have any problems checked out.
Read the original article here.