Sounding Board: The Silicone Controversy--When Will Science Prevail?

Concern about an increased risk of breast cancer after silicone implantation has been expressed repeatedly by Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the advocacy group Public Citizen, most recently at the February 1992 FDA hearing on silicone-gel breast implants.11 The only cancers ever plausibly attributed to silicone, however, were connective-tissue sarcomas that appeared in strains of rodents susceptible to cancer -- a phenomenon known as solid-state carcinogenesis.12 Silicone has not been known to cause breast cancer in any animal species.