Fw: Breast Implants Linked to Cancer, Lung Diseases, and Suicide

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From: " ilena rose " <ilena@...>

Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 10:56 PM

Subject: Breast Implants Linked to Cancer, Lung Diseases, and Suicide

> Breast Implants Linked to Cancer, Lung Diseases, and Suicide

>

> Two NIH Studies Raise New Concerns about Silicone and Saline Implants

>

> WASHINGTON, DC - Women who have breast implants are significantly more

> likely to die from brain tumors, lung cancer, other respiratory diseases,

> and suicide compared to other plastic surgery patients, according to a

> comprehensive new study.

>

> Women with implants are also more likely to develop cancer compared to

> other women their age, according to a second study.

>

> The findings are statistically significant, which means that they are

> unlikely to have occurred by chance.

>

> The two federally-funded studies were conducted by scientists from the

> National Cancer Institute (NCI), Boston University, Abt Associates, and

the

> Food and Drug Administration, with Dr. Louise Brinton from NCI as lead

> author.

>

> They were published in the May issues of two medical journals:

> Epidemiology and ls of Epidemiology.

>

> The studies were designed to answer questions of great importance to the

> almost 2 million U.S. women who have had breast implants:

>

> 1) do breast implants increase the risk of cancer and

> 2) do women with implants die at a younger age than other women?

>

> Mortality

>

> The research published in Epidemiology is the first study that has ever

> examined all causes of death among implant patients.

>

> It compares death rates of women with breast implants to death rates of

> other plastic surgery patients and to women of the same age in the

general

> population.

>

> The study is based on medical records and death certificates of almost

> 8,000 women with breast implants, including silicone gel implants and

> saline implants, and more than 2,000 other plastic surgery patients.

>

> Previous studies of breast implants have focused on breast cancer and

> autoimmune diseases such as lupus and scleroderma, but not other serious

> illnesses.

>

> Implant patients were three times as likely to die from lung cancer,

> emphysema and pneumonia as other plastic surgery patients.

>

> Previously published medical studies have described lung problems and

> asthma related to breast implants; untreated asthma can develop into

> emphysema..

>

> The greater number of deaths from lung diseases was not explained by

> smoking, which was comparable among all plastic surgery patients.

>

> Deaths from brain cancer were twice as likely among implant patients.

>

> Cognitive problems and memory loss are frequent complaints of women with

> breast implants, most of whom are in their twenties and thirties, and

> therefore surprisingly young for these types of problems. PET scans have

> indicated brain abnormalities can decrease when implants are removed.

>

> The high rate of suicide could potentially be related to low self-esteem,

> which has been noted among women who decide to get implants. Breast

> implant manufacturers claim that implants improve women's self-esteem,

but

> there is no long-term evidence to support that assumption. Psychologists

> have questioned the wisdom of treating low self-esteem with plastic

> surgery. Cancer

>

> The second study, published in ls of Epidemiology, found a

> statistically significant 21% overall increase in cancers for women with

> implants, compared to women of the same age in the general population.

>

> The number of women with stomach cancer, cervical cancer, vulvar cancer,

> brain cancer, and leukemia were all at least twice as high among women

> with implants. Cancer rates for other plastic surgery patients were also

> higher than the general population, but were significantly lower than for

> women with breast implants, especially for cervical cancer and lung and

> other respiratory cancers.

>

> Both studies compared women with implants to women in the general

> population, and conducted separate comparisons to other plastic surgery

> patients.

>

> Women with implants or other plastic surgery tend to be more affluent

than

> the general population, and also differ from the general population in

> terms of smoking and several other health-related behaviors.

>

> Women with implants and other plastic surgery patients had a lower death

> rate compared to women in the general population, probably because

> mortality rates are higher among the poor and because women in poor

health

> do not usually undergo plastic surgery.

>

> " These are groundbreaking studies because they evaluate women who had

> implants for at least eight years, and study diseases that have never been

> studied before among implant patients.

>

> Most previous studies only focused on a few autoimmune diseases and

> evaluated women with implants for an average of 6-8 years, including many

> women who had implants for only a few months or years.

>

> Cancer and other life-threatening diseases take many years to develop,

so

> you need to study women who have implants for 10-15 years or more to

> evaluate long-term risks " explains Zuckerman, Ph.D., President of

> the National Center for Policy Research (CPR) for Women & Families, and

> author of numerous articles on women's health, including breast implants.

> The well-designed studies contacted all the breast augmentation patients

of

> 18 plastic surgery practices that agreed to participate. The response

rate

> was 71%, which is excellent for a retrospective study that requires

> patients to complete questionnaires. However, it is unknown whether the

> plastic surgeons who refused to have their patients participate in the

> study did so because of concerns that results indicating problems could

> deter future patients.

>

> " These articles are a wake-up call for the more than 200,000 women and

> teenagers who plan to get breast implants this year, " according to Dr.

> Zuckerman. " We need more independently-funded long-term research to

> determine whether these findings are confirmed when women with implants

are

> studied for 15-20 years. Most important, these studies remind us that we

> still know very little about the long-term dangers of breast implants --

> because they have never been studied until now. "

>

> Epidemiology is the official journal of the International Society for

> Environmental Epidemiology, and ls of Epidemiology is sponsored by the

> American College of Epidemiology.

>

>