Today, I would like to share about breast implant associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL).

Many doctors, WHO and FDA have continued to study and state problems on the correlation between breast implant and ALCL.

In FDA’s report on March 22nd, it concentrated in showing significant understanding of textured implant having high correlation to side effects compared to smooth type implant.

There were many who asked if they should remove the textured implant that they used after reading this report.

But first, let’s talk about how common or rare this ALCL is.

The most knowledgeable journal in cosmetic surgery is PRS journal. In the January edition, Professor Miranda and 8 others from Texas Anderson Cancer Center published that the prevalence rate of ALCL from implant was 3 out of 100 million (0.0000030%). The prevalence rate on textured implant is 2.03 out of 1 million people (0.000203%).



The lifetime prevalence rate is 33 out of 1 million (0.00330%). This is a very rare disease.



Let’s see how dangerous ALCL is. Anderson Cancer Center report says that the survival rate within 5 years is 93~89%. This is pretty good rate compared to other severe cancers. It is defined as curable disease as well.

All reports show that the textured implant has higher prevalence rate compared to other types but this texturing method on the implant is different from one implant manufacturer to another.

The texturing process involves the usage of salt loss crystal on implant (Allergan, Cervin, etc) or negative imprint stamping on implant (Mentor). Almost all ALCL cases are found on the salt loss crystal processing.

But, we do not have enough data to conclude on this. It is because the disease is very, very, very rare. There is no way to get related information easily.

Here is the link of March 22nd FDA report and guideline. I would like to summarize the important contents.



The 231 patient records that FDA collected were reported in MDA. These records are important but unreliable and inaccurate.

Because it has generally only been identified in patients with late onset of symptoms such as pain, lumps, swelling, or asymmetry, prophylactic breast implant removal in patients without symptoms or other abnormality is not recommended.

And, they recommended routine care and support as usual for treatment.

One recommendation to the patient is,

If you have breast implants, there is no need to change your routine medical care and follow-up. BIA-ALCL is rare.

There is not one case report of BIA - ALCL in Korea.

Breast implants are not perfect, they have various problems.

But if there are more to gain from them than problems raised, we tend to use them. There is a chance of getting into an accident when driving a car, but no matter what, we do drive our cars. This is the same in some aspect.

But, I really do think that we do not need to have much fear about ALCL.

This is all for today. Have a great day. Thank you.