Robert Whitfield MDAmerica's Breast Implant Illness Expert™

Why CD30 Testing Matters in Delayed Implant Fluid

30 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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Dr. Robert Whitfield explains that aspirating fluid from a breast implant capsule alone cannot diagnose BIA-ALCL. CD30 immunohistochemical testing of the fluid's leukocytes is required by the Plastic Surgery Society to confirm or rule out the condition. Without it, malignant cells are missed and patients may be wrongly treated for sarcoma.

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Aspiration is not sufficient for diagnosis, but it does help you identify the cell types. The Plastic Surgery Society has gone on to direct us: testing for CD30 is required to confirm or rule out BIA-ALCL. Leukocytes that are not tested for CD30 can miss the diagnosis and then get treated as an ordinary sarcoma, which should not be appropriate. If there is a solid mass, that mass needs obviously a biopsy. And not a fluid sampling, but that would be dealt with differently.