Frequently Asked Breast Augmentation Questions

Will mammograms be less accurate in detecting breast cancer?

This is a very good question because breast cancer is not uncommon. After breast augmentation ladies need to advise their mammographer that they have implants; if they don’t, this will quickly be figured out anyways. When doing a mammography after augmentation it is necessary to do extra views called ecklund views. Early studies on this estimated the about of breast tissue concealed or hidden by the implant to be in the neighborhood of 5%. These are fairly old studies. In talking with the radiologist now they do not feel this is still the same disadvantage that it was. Breast augmentation is exceedingly common and they have gotten a lot of practice.

More importantly, do implants affect breast cancer detection? The short answer is no. There have been studies that look at breast cancer detection after implants. If breast implants were delaying a diagnosis of breast cancer we might see larger tumors or lymph node spreads or more importantly people with implants getting breast cancer later would have a lower survival. All of these things turned out not to be the case. The tumor size was not changed and the likelihood of it spreading to the lymph nodes was no different. The most important thing was that the breast cancer survival with or without implants was unchanged. We very much encourage our patients to continue breast cancer screening after breast augmentation as recommended by their age and family history. 

If you have any questions for Dr Rude comment below and we will try and help you as best we can!