Oncologist Assails FDA’s Silicone Rules
Choong Hyun Baick is furious.
Baick, 55, a surgical oncologist in Santa Ana, specializes in treating breast cancer. That has put him in the forefront of a major medical controversy: silicone-gel breast implants.
“I am angry,” the doctor said, because the Food and Drug Administration “is handling this thing all wrong. . . . And the more they talk, the worse it gets.”
He was referring to the FDA’s recent policy that allows women who have had breast cancer or have deformities to have such implants but that severely restricts the surgery for cosmetic purposes. The new policy is expected to be implemented by late summer.
“Why are they saying the implants are not OK for anyone but cancer patients?” he asked. “If the implants are indeed detrimental, then why not just ban them completely? Why subject the cancer patients to them? That is the most amoral decision I have ever heard.”
Baick, who has practiced in the county for the past 23 years, said his career choice was inevitable. Born in Japan to Korean parents, Baick was the grandson of an herbal-medicine doctor and the son of a physician.
“There was no question, and the choice would have been easy anyway,” Baick said. “From Day 1, I was going to be a doctor.”
Baick, who has been an oncology surgeon for 19 years, said he decided to specialize in breast cancer because he found that a wider variety of duties meant that he “could not give proper care to all the women who needed it.”
His experience has convinced him, he said, that women who want implants for whatever personal reasons should be allowed to have the surgery, provided that they are aware of possible complications.
“It’s a personal choice,” he said, “and personal choice is an issue here.”
Baick accused the FDA of “creating hysteria” among women by “giving in to the strong-arm” tactics of those opposed to silicone implants for breast augmentation.
He also blamed the FDA action for the onslaught of malpractice lawsuits filed against doctors since January, when the FDA placed a moratorium on implant surgery.
“No longer is this health matter determined by the experts,” he said. “Now, it’s just ‘go to the courtroom.’
“Trial lawyers are as happy as a clam since this thing started. The whole thing is very, very ugly.”
Baick also works as a consultant to women who have had breast surgery performed by other doctors. Of the women he evaluated who have had cosmetic breast surgery, he said, “95% of them say they are happy and will do it again.”
If breast augmentation using silicone-gel implants was as dangerous as advocates of the ban contend, “I would be the first--and I would be happy to do it--to say ‘Don’t use it.’ ”
