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France may order 30,000 women to remove implants

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Published : Dec. 21, 2011 - 11:15

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Up to 30,000 French women and perhaps tens of thousands more around the world may have to have defective breast implants removed after several suspicious cases of cancer, officials said Tuesday.

A decision on whether to order the removal of the implants, produced by the Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) company, will be made by the end of the week, after a report from the National Cancer Institute on December 23.

"The question we are asking is: yes or no, do we need to recommend to women to have these implants removed?" a health ministry official said.

For now, the official said, the "causal link" between the implants and cases of cancer "has not been established" and "there is no urgent health risk".

Quoting several senior medical officials, French newspaper Liberation reported Tuesday that the decision had already been made and that health authorities will order the implants to be removed.

It was not immediately clear how many foreign women may have been given PIP products but the firm was once the world's third-largest producer of silicone implants, producing 100,000 per year and exporting 80 percent of its output.

Liberation said 300,000 women around the world had received PIP implants.

PIP was shut down and its product banned last year after it was revealed to have been using non-authorised silicone gel that caused abnormally high rupture rates of its implants.

Health officials said last week that eight cases of cancer, mainly breast cancer, had been reported in women who had received the PIP implants.

"It is urgent for all women who have PIP implants to return to see their surgeons," French government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse told LCI television, adding that costs of removal would be covered by state health insurance.

"The government will announce its action plan by the end of the week," she said. "But we must first of all proceed with a census of women who received these implants and are potentially in danger."

Prosecutors in Marseille, near the firm's home base of Seyne-sur-Mer, have received more than 2,000 complaints from women who received the implants and have opened a criminal investigation into the firm.

Laurent Lantieri, one of France's most well-known cosmetic surgeons and a member of a health department committee on the issue, told Liberation there was no choice but to order the implants' removal.

"We all agree on the necessity of this decision," he said.

"We are facing a health crisis linked with a fraud. The entire profession is aware of this. There is no urgency but we no longer have any choice -- all these implants must be removed," he said.

So far only 523 women who received the PIP implants have had them removed, Liberation said.

The newspaper quoted France's director general for health, Jean-Yves Grall, as saying that while the state would cover the costs of removing implants, it would not pay for implanting new ones unless the women involved had reconstructive surgery following a mastectomy.

"This does not shock me," Lantieri said. "It is not up to society, in a time of crisis, to pay for a new implant for aesthetic reasons."

 

<한글 기사>

佛, 발암위험 유방보형물 비상

세계 3위의 실리콘젤 유방보형물 메이커인 프랑스의 폴리 임플랜트 프로테스(PIP) 사 제품이 발암 위험이 있는 것으로 밝혀지면서 이를 유방 성형에 이용한 프랑스 여성 3만명과 외국 여성 수 십 만명이 유방보형물을 제거해야 할 상황에 직면하게 됐다.

발레리 페크레세 프랑스 정부대변인은 PIP 사 제품의 발암 위험 가능성을 평가하고 있으며 국립암연구소의 보고서가 나오는대로 금주말까지 PIP사 제품을 사용한 여성에 대해 제거명령을 내릴지 여부를 결정할 것이라고 20일 LCI-TV 뉴스를 통해 밝혔다.

유방보형물을 제거해야 하는 경우 그 비용은 정부가 의료보험을 통해 지급할 것 이라고 페크레세 대변인은 말했다.

일간 리베라시옹은 그러나 결정은 이미 내려졌으며 보건당국은 PIP 사의 유방보 형물을 삽입한 여성들에게 이를 제거하도록 명령할 것이라고 보도했다. 지금까지 52 3명이 PIP 사의 유방보형물을 제거했다고 이 신문은 전했다.

PIP 사의 유방보형물을 삽입한 여성 중에서 8명이 암이 발생했으며 대부분 유방 암이었다고 프랑스 보건관리들이 지난 주 밝힌 바 있다.

PIP 사는 연간 10만 개의 유방보형물을 생산해 80%를 수출해왔으나 작년 제품에 허가되지 않은 실리콘젤을 사용해 유방보형물의 파열률이 너무나 높게 나타나고 있다는 사실이 밝혀지면서 생산금지 조치가 취해졌다.

PIP 사의 보형물을 사용한 외국 여성들이 얼마나 되는지는 확실지 않다. 리베라 시옹지는 30만 명에 이른다고 보도했다.

프랑스의 저명한 성형외과 전문의로 이 문제와 관련해 보건부가 설치한 특별위원회 위원인 로랑 랑티에리 박사는 리베라시옹과의 회견에서 유방보형물을 제거하라 는 명령을 내리는 수 밖에 다른 방법이 없다고 말했다.