Cancer Causing Drug Claim Results in Lawsuit

First appeared in Contra Costa Times

Arline MacCormack first heard about DES from her mother when she was 17.

Three decades later, MacCormack believes that the drug her mother took to prevent miscarriages caused her to develop breast cancer at age 44. That is when she started thinking about a Defective Drug Lawyer.

MacCormack, of Newton, is one of 53 women from around the country who are suing drug companies who made and promoted DES for millions of pregnant women from about 1938 to the early 1970s. In 1971, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told doctors to stop prescribing DES for their pregnant patients after a study found that taking DES during pregnancy appeared to increase the risk of developing a rare vaginal cancer years later for DES daughters in their teens and 20s.

DES, or diethylstilbestrol, is a synthetic estrogen that was prescribed to millions of women in the United States, Europe and other countries to prevent miscarriages, premature birth and other problems.

The case in Boston is being closely watched by DES daughters around the country. Thousands of lawsuits by Defective Drug Lawyers have been filed since the 1970s alleging links between DES and cervical and vaginal cancer, as well as infertility problems. The Boston case is believed to be the first major litigation alleging a link between DES and breast cancer in DES daughters older than 40.

MacCormack, now 50, said she was stunned when she was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago after having mammograms every six months since she turned 40 because she had had several benign cysts removed over the years.

"The characteristics of my cancer were for women over 60 typically. It wasn't the type of cancer a 40-year-old or a 44-year-old woman gets," said MacCormack.

"When I read the research that's been done, I found I had more chance of getting it because my mom took DES," she said.

The women's lawyers say their case is supported by a recent study that suggests that breast cancer risk is nearly doubled in DES daughters over the age of 40. The average woman has about a 1 in 50 chance of developing breast cancer by 55. The study, led by Dr. Robert Hoover, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute, found that the chance for DES daughters is 1 in 25.

The lawsuit alleges that 14 drug manufacturers -- including Eli Lilly and Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. -- withheld from doctors and the FDA reports that showed DES did not prevent miscarriages and raised serious questions about the safety of the drug. Often this is the research that a Defective Drug Lawyer develops.

"This drug, DES, was the biggest human experiment of quackery in the history of medicine," said Aaron Levine, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who filed the Boston lawsuit and represents another 18 DES daughters making similar claims.

Representatives and lawyers for Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb declined to comment on the lawsuit.

In court and in public documents, the companies argue that a firm link between DES and breast cancer has not been established and that the DES daughters who are suing them have not shown that DES caused their cancers.

"We believe these claims are without merit and are prepared to defend against them vigorously," Eli Lilly said in its most recent annual report.