GOOD NEWS FOR IMPLANTS.

Byline: Gina Kolata The New York Times

An independent panel of 13 scientists convened by the Institute of Medicine at the request of Congress has concluded that silicone breast implants do not cause any major diseases.

``Some women with breast implants are indeed very ill, and the IOM committee is very sympathetic to their distress,'' the group wrote in a report to be made public on Tuesday. ``However, it can find no evidence that these women are ill because of their implants.''

The report, more than 400 pages long, says that the ``primary safety issue'' with implants is their tendency to rupture or deflate and to lead to infections or hardening or scarring of the breast tissue. There is little argument about these localized problems, which can be painful and disfiguring and which often lead women to have additional surgery.

But the report asserts in forceful terms that there is no reason to believe that the implants cause rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or any other systemic disease. Women who say their implants have caused them to suffer these or related problems have turned breast implants into a leading source of liability litigation.

The report was provided to The New York Times by an organization that consults in the breast implant matter and, a spokesman said, that ``is pleased with the report's conclusions.'' The report is the latest in a series of evaluations that have concluded there is no scientific evidence to support the lawsuits.

Because it comes from the Institute of Medicine, the medical arm of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's most prestigious scientific organization, it is expected to be influential in setting scientific agendas and encouraging women to accept settlements from implant makers rather than take their cases to court.

In preparing the report, panel members held public hearings, met in private and evaluated more than a thousand research reports. The institute panel did not conduct any original research. Rather, the panel relied primarily on research reported by other scientists. But the report said that since lawsuits were first filed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there have been many scientific studies upon which to make an evaluation.

Last December, scientists appointed by the judge overseeing implant liability litigation, Sam C. Pointer Jr., of the U.S. District Court in Alabama, came to a similar conclusion as the institute panel and a report issued in July by scientists in Britain who had been charged by the British minister of health to review implant safety.

Scientists appointed by Judge Robert E. Jones of the U.S. District Court in Oregon, reached a comparable conclusion.

Meanwhile, the Dow Corning Corp., which filed for bankruptcy citing the burden of its breast implant litigation, has agreed to pay women $3.2 billion to settle their claims. Other implant manufacturers, Baxter International, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, have agreed to a settlement estimated at $3 billion combined.

In addition, thousands of women have settled their cases in private agreements with implant makers or gone to trial and won awards that reached millions of dollars.