Paris ( CNN ) -- The French government will pay for tens of thousands of women to have silicone breast implants removed over concerns about a possible link to a rare form of cancer , the Ministry of Health said Wednesday . French health authorities are due to make a recommendation Friday about whether women with implants by a company called Poly Implant Prosthese ( PIP ) must have them removed . The ministry says about 30,000 French women have PIP implants , which are not currently approved for use in the United States . According to a news release from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons , PIP is now defunct . It says the company `` used non-medical grade silicone believed by the manufacturers to be made for mattresses . '' The French government agency that evaluates the safety of medical products says 523 women have had them removed since a defect was discovered last year . More than 1,000 implants have ruptured since then , the agency says . British authorities are advising caution over the implants but are not going as far as the French . The UK 's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said Tuesday it was `` aware of the recent report in France of the death of a woman implanted with breast implants from anaplastic large cell lymphoma , '' which it called `` a rare form of cancer which affects cells from the immune system . '' It said it would `` monitor for any associations of all types of breast implants , including PIP , with cancers and any other health implications . '' But it did not advise women with PIP implants to have them taken out , saying more generally that `` women with any type of breast implant ... who have questions about their breasts or think that their implants may have ruptured , should seek clinical advice from their implanting surgeon . '' A committee made up of representatives of several French health agencies was set up December 14 to discuss PIP implants . Women will only be reimbursed for new implants if they were originally for reconstructive surgery , the Health Ministry said . The U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided in March 2000 not to approve saline PIP implants in the United States . The company never submitted a marketing application for its silicone implants in the United States , the agency says . CNN 's Laura Perez Maestro and Miriam Falco contributed to this report .
The British Health ministry is concerned over a possible cancer link . More than 1,000 French women have implants made by the Health Ministry . PIP implants are not approved for use in UK . French officials advise women concerned about implants to talk to their doctor .