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With millions of women around the globe opting for breast implants, one would think it is risk free. A new study however says that implants can cause a rare type of lymph cancer.

According to Zee News, Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL) is rare type of malignancy which was documented in 71 women who had undergone breast surgery. A research team comprising experts from Medical University Vienna, the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research found that this type of cancer develops several years after surgery, in scar tissue around the implant. While two sub types of ALCL were previously known, researchers have pointed out the existence of a third sub type.

Fox News reported that in one sub type of ALCL tumor cells produce an abnormal protein. Women with protein-positive ALCL were said to have better outcomes. The protein anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is not produced by cancer cells in the second sub type.

Researchers said the tumor cells in the third sub type like the second type, do not produce ALK.

"This is a previously unrecognized, new subtype of ALCL. We must now determine the exact causes behind its occurrence," said one of the researchers, Lukas Kenner, from the Medical University Vienna in a press release. 

Researchers also admitted that reasons for ALCL's association with implants remains unknown but cure often results with removal of implants.

"The actual reasons why implants can cause lymphoma remain unclear. While some patients were successfully treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy, the lymphoma in many cases subsided on its own following removal of the implant and the surrounding tissue. An abnormal immune response from the body could therefore be a cause of the cancer," they wrote.

The team is expected to conduct further studies to determine the impact of implants and dentures in other parts of the body.