Study No Link Between Breast Implants and Disease
Posted By Clod on February 13, 2012
Silicone breast implants do not increase the risk of connective-tissue or autoimmune diseases, concludes a recent analysis. This latest report, published in the March 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, supports the findings of previous analyses.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined the results of 20 key studies investigating the relationship between silicone breast implants and autoimmune conditions or connective-tissue diseases. The UNC study is the largest and most comprehensive of breast implant analyses utilizing a technique known as meta-analyses, in which several studies are pooled and reassessed.
Concern over the implants has generated numerous lawsuits and considerable confusion during the past decade.
Physician case reports in the early 1980s gave rise to the hypothesis that silicone breast implants might cause connective-tissue diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other autoimmune disorders in which the immune system harms the body’s healthy tissues. Although unproved, this hypothesis was the root of intense public fear and massive lawsuits against breast implant makers, most prominently Dow Corning.
In 1996, an expert scientific panel, called the National Science Panel, was convened by a federal judge to objectively and definitively assess the data linking silicone breast implants and connective-tissue diseases. The latest UNC study is part of the panel’s comprehensive report issued in November 1998.
“Knowing what we now do about the lack of validity of the relationship between silicone breast implants and connective-tissue diseases, it’s a shame that women with these implants had to undergo the very real fear and distrust generated by this junk-science issue,” said Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health.
In an editorial accompanying the UNC report, members of the National Science Panel described their experience with the panel and offered recommendations for improving future panels. They concluded that “such panels should be used more frequently, because they can bring unbiased information about complex scientific and medical issues into the courtroom.”
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