France advises breast implant removal for 30,000 women

France’s health ministry on Friday advised 30,000 women with breast implants made by the French firm Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), to have them removed.

Reuters/Eric Gaillard

A health ministry statement said women with PIP implants “do not have a higher risk of cancer than women who have implants manufactured by other firms”, but added that there were “well established risks of ruptures”.

Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said removal was a precautionary measure, stressing that there was no urgency.

Most of the eight cancer cases reported among women with PIP implants relate to breast cancer.

Medical insurance will pay for the implant removals.

New implants will be funded for women who had the original implants as part of reconstructive surgery after breast cancer, but not for women whose original implants were for purely aesthetic reasons.

Women with PIP implants are advised to contact their doctors and “a precautionary removal will be offered, even if there are no signs of deterioration of the implant.”

Women who decline the offer of an implant removal should have a breast scan every six months, says the health ministry.

The government advice was informed by Thursday’s National Cancer Institute experts report on the subject, which states: “Given the absence of new information about the substandard gel or new clinical data on specific complications, the experts feel there is insufficient proof to advise the preventative, systematic removal of the implants”.

Tens of thousands of women in more than 65 countries, mainly in South America and western Europe, received implants made by PIP, which is now a bankrupt company.

The company was shut down last year and its products were banned after it was revealed that it replaced medical-grade silicone with industrial-strength material, causing abnormally high rupture rates in its implants.

Prosecutors in the southern French city of Marseilles, near where the company was based, have opened a criminal investigation into the firm.