Suit over pregnancy drug opens Friday

BOSTON -- At first, the Melnick sisters thought it was just a cruel coincidence that two of them were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Then two more sisters were given the same diagnosis and they came to suspect that a drug their mother took in the 1950s while she was pregnant had something to do with it.

The four sisters are suing Eli Lilly and Co., a former maker of DES, or diethylstilbestrol, in a case opening in federal court today. It will become one of the first of scores of such claims around the United States to go to trial. The Melnicks are seeking unspecified damages.

The numerous pharmaceutical companies that made or marketed the drug argue that no firm link has been established between breast cancer and DES, a synthetic estrogen that was prescribed to millions from the late 1930s to the early 1970s to prevent miscarriage, premature births and other problems. It was eventually pulled from the market after being linked to a rare vaginal cancer in women whose mothers used DES. And studies showed the drug did not prevent miscarriages after all.

All four Melnick sisters had miscarriages, fertility problems or other reproductive tract issues. The sisters, who grew up in Tresckow, Pa., say they have compelling anecdotal evidence: Their mother took DES while pregnant with Donna, Michele, Andrea and Francine. All had reproductive problems and developed breast cancer in their 40s. Their mother did not take DES while pregnant with the oldest sister, Mary Ann, and she did not have fertility or cancer issues.

Eli Lilly and Co. argues that there is no evidence the mother, Frances Melnick, even took DES. She and her doctor are dead.