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A woman believes her small, cancerous lump was discovered because her “quite large” E-cup breast implants pushed it forward
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Tayla Gardiner, 32, says she felt the lump in the shower, and tests showed it was triple-negative breast cancer
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She said her symptoms started with an itchiness in her breast, but she thought it was a cyst
A woman says a small but invasive cancerous lump on her breast was only discovered because her “quite big” breast implants were “pushing it forward” towards her skin.
Tayla Gardiner, 32, first noticed the lump in her right breast in January while she was showering. It was “a little lump” and was accompanied by “itchiness in my right breast. I thought it was a cyst or damaged tissue,” she said, according to The Daily Mail. “I saw a female doctor, she felt my breast, said it was very small, and that maybe it was an infection.”
The doctor referred her to a breast clinic anyway “just to make sure it was okay and thank God she did that,” Gardiner says, because “three weeks later I found I had breast cancer, it was such a shock.”
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Taylor Gardiner was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer after discovering a lump in her breast.
The lump is “small, it’s only 17cm at the moment,” Gardiner, who hails from the English town of Gravesend, says. It was only noticeable because “the breast implants I have are quite big, you can notice the implant more because it’s pushing it forward.”
“I think that helped find the lump because they say to check your boobs and you know if you have lumpy boobs that something isn’t right,” she said.
Although it was a small lump, it was aggressive, Gardiner explains, sharing that she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, it is negative on tests for estrogen and progesterone receptors and doesn’t produce much HER2 protein. As ACS explains, it “tends to grow and spread faster, has fewer treatment options, and tends to have a worse prognosis.”
Gardiner says when she heard the news, “I can’t put into words how I felt. The first thing I asked was, ‘Am I going to die?’ “
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Tayla Gardiner’s ruptured implant after removal
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Gardiner wonders if her ruptured implant from a few years ago caused the disease; the cancer was found in the same breast.
“I kept getting kidney and [bladder] infections and I went to have a full CT scan, which found my right breast had ruptured,” the model says.”’They took the implant out and it was yellow, it was so painful because of how long it was there for.”
She shared that last August and December, she also had two breast infections — and says, “It’s such a coincidence that [the cancer] happened in my right breast where it ruptured.’ ”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration notes there is a specific type of breast cancer that occurs from implants: breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL), which is a T-cell lymphoma that develops after breast implants. The agency notes reports of squamous cell carcinoma in the scar tissue around implants and “various mesenchymal tumors, including sarcomas of the breast, in patients with breast implants.
But, the FDA says, it “has not detected any association between silicone gel-filled breast implants and … breast cancer or reproductive problems.”
Gardiner says she doesn’t feel “unwell” apart from feeling “tired” as she awaits surgery and a treatment plan. “Every day I just walk around thinking, ‘I have this cancer in my breast, and I just want to cut it out.’ “
She’s urging others to seek medical care for any concerns, “even if you feel a bit silly.”
“Don’t wait. Don’t leave it,” she says. “If I left that for a year, I don’t know where I would have been by then.”
“You only have one life, and you don’t think about it, but when you get diagnosed, you start seeing life in a different way.”
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