The Research Community Is Shocked Once Again by Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of Interest have risen their ugly head again in human subject research. This time hidden tobacco money appears to have funded a study suggesting that lung scans might help save smokers from cancer and thereby lessen the risks of smoking.

Both the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA published studies by Weill Cornell Medical College researchers in 2006 without understanding or disclosing that the Liggett Group had provided funding for the study.

The issue of whether such routine scans are worthwhile is a hot topic and a critical public health issue. In fact, the American Cancer Society and numerous other groups have provided funding to the Cornell team to see if routinely screening smokers with CT scans can reveal early signs of lung cancer and prevent deaths.

John Niederhuber, director of the National Cancer Institute issued a statement that scientists must maintain the trust of patients in research studies and "any breach of that trust is not simply disappointing but, I believe, unacceptable."

JAMA’s editor in chief Dr. Catherine DeAngelis  said she contacted Cornell’s lead researcher Dr. Claudia Henschke months ago after learning that the Cornell group held patents related to CT scanning technology which also were not disclosed.  Said Dr. DeAngelis,  "We'd been working with Dr. Henschke trying to get her to write a letter of apology — which is our policy — and to take responsibility. It was not easy to get her to do anything." DeAngelis further said that, had she known big tobacco had funded the research, “ I would have turned down the paper."

Alan Milstein