Breast augmentation may hurt breast cancer survival

May 1, 2013

The weight of evidence from epidemiological studies indicates cosmetic breast implants are not associated with increased risk of breast cancer, but concern remains because implants may impair the ability to identify breast cancer at an early stage by mammography because cosmetic breast implants are radio-opaque, impairing the visualization of breast tissue with mammography and making detection of breast cancer at an early stage more difficult. (UPI)