Print“American Society of Plastic Surgeons president Phil Haeck reportedly said that a rare cancer associated with breast implants would be called “a condition” in discussions with the media, 'not a tumor, not a disease and certainly not a malignancy.'”
Following a webinar held by two plastic surgery associations that instructed doctors to downplay cancer risks and malignancies associated with breast implants, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is telling them to play it straight with patients and help build a registry of women with the implants.
It’s the agency’s response to a letter from Public Citizen, a nonprofit advocacy group, which complained about an online discussion hosted by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. In a transcript of the talk shared with Public Citizen, American Society of Plastic Surgeons president Phil Haeck reportedly said that a rare cancer associated with breast implants would be called “a condition” in discussions with the media, “not a tumor, not a disease and certainly not a malignancy.” Haeck also advised using “condition” to describe the cancer to patients “rather than disturb them by saying this is a cancer, this is a malignancy.”
About 34 cases of women with the unusual cancer, anaplastic large cell lymphoma, have been documented according to Public Citizen, which reviewed published studies of its occurrence. In February, the group wrote a letter to the FDA expressing concern about the online seminar and asking the FDA to “stop this misleading effort to keep women in the dark about the dangers of breast implants so they will continue to ask for them.”
Although the FDA does not regulate the groups, it says in a letter to Public Citizen that it is “committed to assuring that healthcare providers and patients receive accurate information” and has talked to the groups, both of which committed to removing the online seminar from their website.
Next on the FDA’s agenda is to work with plastic surgeons to create a registry to gather additional information about the occurrence of anaplastic large cell lymphoma in women with breast implants.
“The details of the collaboration are still being developed,” says Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, “however FDA is committed to assuring the integrity of the data and the scientific validity of the information collected.”
March 04, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-enhancing_the_truth.html
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