Keeping the Public Confused: “New” Research from Vanderbilt-Ingram
Vanderbilt University News carried this headline yesterday: “New review clears silicone gel breast implants of serious health risks; Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers find no cancer link.”
Objective researchers will disagree with those conclusions. Here are some problems with the review.
The review article’s four authors all have financial ties to the breast implant industry. Two are stock-owning employees of Allergan,which makes breast implants. The main author, Joseph McLaughlin, has been a consultant to the same implant company (Inamed, beforeAllergan bought the company), and he and the fourth author, Loren Lipworth, have received millions of dollars from Dow Corning for their research on breast implants. In fact, McLaughlin is an author of almost every study on breast implants of the last 10 years, all funded by Dow Corning, all concluding that implants are safe. (Lipworth and their colleagues at the International EpidemiologyInstituteare co-authors of many of the same studies). With few exceptions, the only studies that McLaughlin hasn’t co-authored are ones by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The NCI and FDA studies are among the best designed and most objective studies, because they focused on women who had breast implants for at least seven years. Those studies found significant increases in several illnesses and symptoms among women with implants.
Financial conflicts of interest raise a red flag, but it is the research design of the industry-funded studies that are the real problem. In contrast to the NCI and FDA studies, most of the McLaughlin studies include women who had implants for only one month or more – a very questionable research design. If you really wanted to know how often smoking causes lung cancer, would you study the impact of smoking on lung cancer by studying people who have been smoking for just one month or more? Of course not – you’d study people who smoked for at least 15 years, because it usually takes 15 to 20 years or more for cancer to develop.
You may wonder why the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center would publish a research review without explaining the caveats about research design limitations. Certainly the authors knew those limitations – after all, the first author co-authored most of the reports he is citing. In summary, this “new review” is a summary by McLaughlin of articles he co-authored. He doesn’t criticize the most serious methodological shortcomings of these previous studies or mention that he co-authored them. And, as he has in every previous study, he is once again concluding that implants are safe the first author co-authored most of the reports he is citing – a conclusion that certainly pleases the company (Dow Corning) that funded most of the research he is citing, as well as the company (Allergan) that employees two of his co-authors.
This is how the stakeholders in the breast implant industry keep the public confused and ill-informed about the research around breast implants.
Allergan
Inamed
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I really wish that “researchers” were required to tell how much funding they get from manufacturers! Dr. McLaughlin delights in writing articles with pro-manufacturer findings and then reviewing his own articles! That doesn’t pass the smell test at all!
My only hope is that real scientists will recognize this for what it is: making a case for Dow Corning or others to go into courts in this country to try to prove to a Judge or a jury that silicone implants are safe.
Full disclosure should be part of the scientific process.
Comment by Sybil — October 29, 2007 @ 9:11 am
Lie after lie after lie! The breast implant manufacturers have gotten away with this heinous fraud because the media has been complicit.
I have given up on the truth ever being known. I have also given up on the class action suit. I was recently informed that the doctor who originally evauated my breast implant illness does not qualify. So I will have to be re-evaluated by an approved doctor. Since I can’t get thru to my lawyer, I have no idea what doctors would be acceptable.
So I have just given up. In my case, evil has won. May the despicable media and their corporate sponsors burn in Hell for an eternity.
Comment by Screwed — October 30, 2007 @ 6:17 pm
It’s heart breaking to see the horrible health problems associated to breast implants continue to be discounted. We see way too many women sick with the same problems on Yahoo’s SalineSupport to be a coincidence. . . And we see the grief of the mothers as they try to help their silicone-poisoned offspring on Yahoo’s SiliconeKids. . .
It’s obvious the FDA has given up and deferred to corporate interests! . . . When I read lies like these, the only thing that gets me through the day is believing that God has a special place in Hell for those who have injured so many women and children.
Hopefully everyone will take a serious look at everyone running for office in 2008 and vote for candidates who are not receiving major support from PAC’s.
Rogene
Comment by Rogene — October 30, 2007 @ 6:54 pm
Dear “Screwed”
Don’t give up on your case. If you do, THEY win and you don’t. You may have extra hurdles to jump but you can do it. The finish line isn’t far off when you keep running. Go for it!
Sybil
Comment by Sybil — October 30, 2007 @ 7:00 pm