Fw: Today's Wall Street Journal article on implants + Dr. Zuckerman's Email

[Guest guest]

I found in my old mail, and wanted to share it...love always......Lea

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From: CPR4WandF@...

cpr4wf@...

Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 7:02 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@...

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Dear Friends, I am sending you a press release with some worrisome findings regarding a possible link between breast implants and cancer and other serious diseases. When you read this please remember that they are preliminary findings in that these are the first studies that have looked at mortality and cancers (other than breast cancer). And although the women with implants have more lung cancers and brain cancers than other plastic surgery patients, the studies show that they are still living longer than women in the general population. Our center will be available to answer any questions you have about the studies. Please send them by e mail. Sincerely, Zuckerman NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 25, 2001 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. CPR for Women & Families is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and families by explaining and disseminating objective research information. For additional information about breast implants, see the CPR website at www.center4policy.org. ------------------- Zuckerman, Ph.D. Executive Director National Center for Policy Research for Women and Families 1444 Eye Street, NW Suite 900 Washington, DC 20005 www.cpr4womenandfamilies.org

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