Fw: Today's Wall Street Journal article on implants

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Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 6:02 AM

Subject: Today's Wall Street Journal article on implants

Women With Breast Implants May Face Slightly Higher Risk of Some Cancers By SARAH LUECK Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- Women who have breast implants may have a "slightly" increased risk of developing some types of cancers and are more likely than other plastic-surgery patients to die from brain cancer, lung cancer and suicide, according to a study by the National Cancer Institute. The study tracked about 8,000 women who had breast-augmentation surgery before 1989. The researchers studied patient questionnaires, as well as medical and death records, and compared the patients' health conditions with 4,000 other women who had undergone plastic surgery. Most of the implant group had silicone implants, and most had the surgery in the 1980s. None of the women got an implant for reconstruction after a mastectomy. The findings add to the debate over the health effects of breast implants. But the researchers stressed that their findings don't mean the implants are the cause of the elevated cancer risk. And they noted that the number of cancer cases was small, so the higher incidence in breast-implant patients could be a chance occurrence. The risk of dying from brain cancer among women with breast implants was about twice that of other plastic-surgery patients. Women with breast implants were three times more likely to die of respiratory cancer and four times more likely to commit suicide than other plastic-surgery patients. Although slightly elevated, the cancer risk was still very low. Breast-implant patients were only slightly more likely than other plastic-surgery patients to contract cancer of all types, said Louise Brinton, chief of the cancer institute's environmental epidemiology branch. The studies appear in the May issues of the medical journals Epidemiology and ls of Epidemiology. Dr. Brinton urged caution in interpreting the data. In the case of brain cancer, for example, only 13 deaths were studied among breast-implant patients and three cases in the comparison group. In the case of respiratory cancer, researchers weren't able to determine in many cases whether the women in the study had been smokers. Zuckerman, president of the national Center for Policy Research for Women and Families, said the findings should be a "wake-up call" for women who are considering getting breast implants. More study needs to be done on the possible long-term effects of implants, she said. Dr. Brinton said higher suicide rates among women having breast implants are "difficult to interpret." Other factors, such as depression, could also be related. Write to Lueck at sarah.lueck@...