Women Need Better Information on Breast Implants, Panel Says

Laurie McGinley, Washington Post: March 26, 2019.


Members of a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee scrutinizing the safety of breast implants urged the agency on Tuesday to take steps to ensure that patients have a clearer understanding of the risks — which includes a rare cancer that is linked to several deaths around the world — posed by the devices.

The members, speaking at the conclusion of a two-day FDA hearing, signaled support for a standardized, easily understood consent form that would lay out the major risks of the devices and be reviewed by patients and their doctors before a woman underwent surgery.

They said the FDA could negotiate the format and content of the consent form with patients, plastic surgeons’ groups and manufacturers. Frank Lewis, chairman of the agency’s panel on general and plastic surgery devices, said the current documents written by manufacturers are too long — some are more than 70 pages — and unwieldy. “They were constructed to provide legal protection for the companies,” he said.

During the sometimes emotionally wrenching hearing on implants, several women testified that they had not been adequately warned of risks posed by implants and were harmed by the devices.

The FDA had asked the panel to hold the hearing and provide guidance on several complicated issues involving implants, which have stirred controversy for decades.

The panel members came up with other suggestions for the FDA. One said that the tissue removed when implants are taken out should be analyzed by pathologists to try to understand what caused any illness or complication. Another said it was important to try to establish an official definition for “breast implant illness” — the constellation of autoimmune problems that many women say are caused by implants — so that insurance would pay for treatment of the ailments. The FDA has said the weight of evidence does not support such “systemic” effects from implants.

But the panel did not appear to reach consensus on recommending that any implants be taken off the market, including certain textured ones that have been linked to cancer. Many patients and advocates called for such a ban, but several panel members said they opposed the step at this time.

At the end of the meeting, however, Texas plastic surgeon Pierre Chevray, a member of the panel, called for banning textured implants that have been barred in other countries.

The FDA has identified 457 cases and nine deaths in the United States associated with the cancer, called Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma. Six hundred cases and 17 deaths have been reported worldwide. Several countries have banned one type of textured devices.

Diana Zuckerman, a longtime advocate who is president of the National Center for Health Research, said the recommendations from the panel “were rather vague,” but she said the meeting was important because it allowed women to tell their stories to the FDA and the surgery panel. “We don’t know what comes next, but I’m hopeful,” she said after the meeting.

The panel also said that the FDA should change its recommendation that women with implants begin to get MRIs after three years to check for ruptures. Perhaps starting after six years would be more practical, considering the cost involved, members said.[…]

See the original story here.