The Ministry of Health has confirmed over a hundred cases of this rare cancer linked to breast implants, mostly in women with textured prostheses.
The Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (Aemps) has confirmed a total of 111 cases of anaplastic large cell lymphoma associated with breast implants (ALCL) up to 2025, a rare type of cancer linked to breast implants. In total, the agency has received 146 suspected reports since it began monitoring this condition in 2012.
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The figures appear in the sixth follow-up report on the national protocol for the detection and study of this type of lymphoma, drawn up on the basis of reports registered in the Medical Devices Vigilance System. For years, Aemps has been carrying out specific monitoring of this disease together with medical societies and European health authorities.
Madrid is the autonomous community with the highest number of reports, ahead of Andalusia, Catalonia and the Valencian Community, according to the report released by the agency.
A rare cancer linked to certain implants
Breast implant-associated ALCL, known internationally as BIA-ALCL, is an uncommon type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that does not originate in breast tissue, but in immune system cells that can develop in the capsule of tissue surrounding the implant.
Aemps stresses that this is a rare disease and notes that its incidence remains low compared with the very large number of women with breast implants. Nonetheless, the agency underlines how important it is to maintain surveillance and improve early detection.
Research carried out so far points to a multifactorial origin of the disease. Factors under study include the type of implant used, certain genetic predispositions and possible inflammatory processes or contamination associated with the implant. However, experts stress that no definitive causal relationship has yet been established and that the mechanism that triggers the development of the lymphoma is still not precisely known.