Breast Implants And Breast Cancer Immunosurveillance: An Updated And Longitudinal Analysis Of Antibody Responses To Breast Cancer Antigen Post Implant Placement
Ramsey Timmerman, BS, Sophia Allison, BASc, Megan Fracol, MD, David Dolivo, Ph.D., Seok Hong, Ph.D., Robert Galiano, MD, FACS, John Y.S. Kim, MD, FACS.
Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
PURPOSE: We previously demonstrated women with breast implants have higher antibody responses to select breast cancer proteins compared to women with no implant exposure. Here, we present antibody response data on a larger cohort of women and with a longer follow-up period.
METHODS: Sera was collected from 34 patients prior to and one-month after breast augmentation surgery, as well as six months after surgery in 10 patients. Antibody responses to breast cancer proteins were tested via ELISA assay. Pre- and post-implant responses were compared with paired t-test using Graphpad Prism v9.1.2.
RESULTS: Average age was 31.6 years (SD 8.2 years) and average BMI 24.1 (SD 5.1). Twenty-nine patients (85.3%) received silicone and all received smooth implants. At one month post-implant placement, anti-MUC1 antibody levels were significantly increased (n=34, mean difference 0.065, p= 0.0002). At six-months post-implant placement, antibody response was significantly increased for MUC-1 (n=9, mean difference 0.051, p=0.015), ER (n=9, mean difference 0.124, p=0.0015), BRCA2 (n=10, mean difference 0.076, p=0.045), HER-2 (n=10, mean difference 0.154, p=0.031), and BRCA1 (n=9, mean difference 0.225, p=0.015). There was no difference in post-implant (one-month and six-month) antibody responses to tetanus, CEA, MMP11, and HER-3. Confirmatory studies show elevated presence of B cells in peri-implant breast tissue compared to implant naïve breast tissue.
CONCLUSION: Women with cosmetic breast implants have elevated antibody responses to common breast cancer proteins as early as one month post implant placement, and sustained at six months. Further studies will elucidate the immunologic mechanism for this potential cancer surveillance role.
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