North Bay woman encouraged by safety review of breast implants

A North Bay woman who has spent the last few years struggling to stay alive is encouraged by news from Health Canada.

Recently, Health Canada announced it's reopening its safety review of breast implants after more women were diagnosed with a rare cancer.

Health Canada says it's been notified of 28 confirmed Canadian cases of breast-implant associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL). It is a serious but rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that affects the immune system. It is not a cancer of the breast.

Terri McGregor got breast implants in 2009. A few years later, a routine mammogram indicated trouble. Further tests and surgery lead to a diagnosis of stage 4 lymphoma.

McGregor was told her prognosis was not good as she wasn't responding to chemotherapy treatment.

"I was put onto a clinical trial," she said. "For me, I only needed four rounds of that trial drug and my next PET scan was clear, no evidence of disease."

Now, McGregor says she's feeling much better and is focusing her energy on being a patient advocate.

"My unpaid, could-be full time job, is helping to support Canadian women who are symptomatic or simply concerned because they have an implant in their body because they now realize there's probably more for them to learn than they were originally told," she said.

McGregor says she's heard stories of women who have been denied testing from their surgeons.

"I have a very hard time believing any woman would opt for an implant knowing that risk is somewhere around 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 3,000 per implant," she said.

"What we'd like to see is women aware of the symptoms and that they feel confident that their plastic surgeon is up to speed with what it is they need to look for."

For women who have had implants, McGregor says there are a few key symptoms to look out for.

"The most common symptom is a seroma or a swelling of the breast," she said.

"Sometimes that happens spontaneously, so a woman can kind of wake up one morning and her breast has doubled in size."

She says other symptoms that could indicate a problem include lumps, itching and rashes.

"Unfortunately a lot of these symptoms in the past were considered benign complications from breast implants," she said. "Essentially, everything has changed now that we've got lymphoma."