World Wide Recall of Textured Breast Implants

Breast implant maker Allergan issued a worldwide recall Wednesday for textured implants due to a link to a rare form of cancer. Breast augmentation is one of the most common plastic surgeries. 300 thousand women will get breast implants each year...and there are two basic kinds: smooth and textured. Not many doctors implant textured anymore...they are outlawed in several countries. However, some American doctors still use them because they bind better to tissue inside the body.

Michelle Forney, from Sacramento, got the textured implants that are now linked to a rare form of cancer....then she got the cancer. Earlier this year she traveled to FDA hearings on the implants. She now helps run an organization that advocates for women.

​Forney is in remission from her anaplastic large cell lymphoma and is one of dozens of women now working on patient and doctor education. The textured implants are implicated in 33 cancer deaths but hundreds of thousands of women still have the textured implants in their bodies.

The FDA is not recommending women with the textured implants have them removed if they are not experiencing problems. Forney says getting to those women and urging them to pay close attention to their health is the priority now as well as making sure Allergan meets its obligation to notify women of the recall.

Click the link to hear our conversation with Michelle Forney and for more on the recall.