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Does Breast Implants Makes It Difficult To Detect Tumors During Mammogram?

Posted on Thu, 12 Jun 2014

Question: My wife is looking into breast implants and wanted to know to have a feel for how much harder it will be to detect potential breast tumors post surgery. She's done the traditional Google searches and knows that implants will make it more difficult to spot tumors during mammography but she doesn't have a feel for the magnitude and importance of that effect. Can an oncologist opine on this?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Rakhi Tayal (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Risk is less than 5%.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for trusting us with your health concern.
Post surgery for breast implants it becomes comparatively more difficult to detect a cancer. The implants do compress the breast tissue in front of it and additional views are needed during mammogram to examine the breast properly.
But the risk of a cancer remaining undetected after breast implants is less than 5%. Regular annual mammography will help in proper diagnosis. Please do not worry.
Please feel free to discuss further. I will be glad to answer the follow up queries that you have.
Wishing you good health.
Regards.
Dr. Rakhi Tayal.
For future query, you can directly approach me through my profile URL http://bit.ly/Dr-Rakhi-Tayal

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar