Legal News
Thousands of Women Prescribed Pregnancy Drug at Risk of Cancer (25 January 2012)
Date: 25/01/2012
Thousands of women are at a higher risk of developing a range of cancers due to a pregnancy drug their mothers were prescribed while they were in the womb, experts have warned. The drug, diethylstilboestrol, or DES for short, was widely prescribed from 1938 to 1971 under the false beliefs that it was able to reduce the chance of miscarriage. Yet in 1971, researchers uncovered a link between the use of the drug and vaginal cancer in the daughters of the women who were prescribed the medicine. Recent research has also linked the drug to a range of other cancers in these individuals.
Recent research from the National Cancer Institute of America revealed that women aged over 40 years whose mothers had taken DES during their pregnancy were at almost double the risk of breast cancer at the age of 55 in comparison to women of the same age whose mothers had not taken the drug. The research found that women whose mothers had taken DES were 40 times more likely to suffer from an uncommon form of vaginal and cervical cancer in comparison to unexposed women.
Approximately 2,000 affected women residing in the U.S.A. have launched compensation cases against DES manufacturers. Around $1.5 billion is believed to have been paid out in compensation. However, no such compensation cases have been heard in Britain. The Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology predicts that around 3,500 women in the U.K. may be at risk because of their mothers being prescribed the drug.
Duncan Lewis’ personal injury solicitors are on hand to deal with compensation claims relating to the use of DES.