Campaigners are demanding an urgent probe into the safety of surgical mesh used in thousands of NHS breast cancer operations each year.
They fear the material, used in breast reconstruction, is leaving women with life-changing injuries, chronic pain and relying on a daily diet of painkillers to cope.
It's feared the mesh is causing some patients harm, in the same way vagin*l mesh, used on the NHS for years to tackle incontinence, left thousands in agony, disabled and suicidal.
One woman told The Mail on Sunday mesh stitched into her abdomen after cancer surgery left her feeling like someone was 'twisting a knife in my stomach'. Another blamed the mesh in her rebuilt breast for an infection that caused her silicone implant to collapse and slip under her armpit. She's now awaiting corrective surgery on the NHS.
The mesh, made from animal tissue or a synthetic material, is implanted either in the reconstructed breast to help support the new structure, or in the abdomen to replace muscle and tissue grafted from there to form a new breast.
An estimated 170,000 women were damaged by vagin*l mesh
The alarm has been raised by campaign group Sling The Mesh which highlighted the dangers of vagin*l mesh – despite the problem initially being denied by medics. In 2018, a damning report by Baroness Julia Cumberlege led to the immediate suspension of NHS vagin*l mesh operations, after a review heard a catalogue of tales from women damaged by the surgery.
In some, the mesh cut through flesh until it protruded through the vagin*. In others, it broke down and moved into other vital organs. The Cumberlege review heard how some women were left needing a wheelchair and unable to work.
An estimated 170,000 women were damaged by vagin*l mesh. Kath Sansom, a former journalist who founded Sling The Mesh after she was left with health problems from a vagin*l implant, said the group has had a rising number of complaints from women suffering similar issues with breast mesh.
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'It's like it was back in 2015 when I was desperately trying to get people to listen to me about vagin*l mesh,' she warned.
'Many probably won't even realise they've had mesh implanted, and when they report problems they'll be told doctors have never seen complications in any other women and to suck it up, just like with vagin*l mesh.'
Around 57,000 women a year in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer. Roughly 15,000 undergo a mastectomy, where the whole breast is removed. About 3,000 a year have an immediate breast reconstruction, while another 1,500 or so have this at a later stage.
Surgeons use a variety of techniques to fashion a new breast.
An increasingly popular method is to use a mesh that works like an 'internal bra' to hold the new breast tissue – either a silicone implant or fatty tissue taken from the abdomen or buttocks – in place.
Another procedure involves taking muscle and fat from the abdomen to make firm new breast tissue, then implanting mesh into the stomach area to strengthen it.
A recent study by doctors at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust in Surrey, which looked at 93 patients who had breast mesh implants fitted, found just under a third suffered complications in the year following surgery, including implant failure and infections.
IT'S A FACT
One in four women in the UK with breast cancer will have a mastectomy.
One in four women in the UK who develop breast cancer will end up having a mastectomy.
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And in 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning that there was a greater risk of complications from implants made from animal tissue. This is usually taken from pigs or cows and stripped of all cells, forming a scaffold-like structure to hold new breast tissue in place.
The FDA warned some makes of animal implant were linked with an increased risk of infection. A clinical trial is under way at Oxford University to compare the safety and effectiveness of mesh versus no mesh in cancer patients.
Liz O'Riordan, retired breast surgeon and co-author of The Complete Guide To Breast Cancer, said there were often complications with early mesh implants used to strengthen the abdomen after the harvesting of tissue. But that surgery is less common on the NHS as it can be traumatic for patients.
The use of mesh to rebuild breasts, however, is generally much safer, she said. 'Sometimes, patients do get contracture [where scar tissue around the mesh squeezes the implant, causing pain and a mis-shapen breast] but you don't get the sort of long-term complications from this technique that we see with vagin*l mesh.'
Jemma Parker, 40, from St Albans in Hertfordshire, says mesh used to rebuild her breasts after a double mastectomy ten years ago has left her needing regular doses of the powerful painkiller tramadol.
The mum-of-three, who runs her own beauty business, had her breasts removed at 30 as she carries the BRCA1 gene that puts her at a very high risk of cancer.
'My mum and my auntie both got breast cancer in their 30s, and I didn't want my kids to watch me go through the same thing,' says Jemma. But she's convinced the pig tissue mesh implant used is responsible for the silicone implant collapsing and moving to her armpit.
'Now it's pushing on a nerve and causing numbness in my arm. I'm in the queue for surgery to correct it,' she says.
Studies show this can happen when the immune system reacts to the mesh, making tissue swell and pushing the implant out of place.
'It's like a knife twisting inside'
Jane Stoddart, 53, underwent a double mastectomy in 2011 and, two years later, had a reconstruction using fat and muscle from her abdomen
Jane Stoddart, 53, has been in pain for the past 11 years due, she says, to the effect of mesh used during her breast cancer surgery.
The mother-of-three underwent a double mastectomy in 2011 and, two years later, had a reconstruction using fat and muscle from her abdomen.
'Within days I knew there was a problem,' she told The Mail on Sunday.
'The pain was unbearable, as if I was being stabbed and the knife was being twisted inside me. That was in April 2013 and I've been in constant agony ever since.'
Jane, from Birmingham, says she didn't know surgeons had used mesh until she needed a hysterectomy, six months after her reconstruction, because of suspected womb cancer.
'The operation should have taken a couple of hours but lasted nearly all day.
'The surgeon later said my insides were in a mess because of the mesh. I had no idea it was even there.
'I was in too much pain and worried about my recovery to make a complaint. But when I later raised it with doctors, I was basically told it was all in my head.'
