Gardiner Harris of the New York Times has just raised important new questions about the integrity of pro-screening work promoted by a leading researcher and published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Excerpt of his story:
In October 2006, Dr. Claudia Henschke of Weill Cornell Medical College jolted the cancer world with a study saying that 80 percent of lung cancer deaths could be prevented through widespread use of CT scans.Small print at the end of the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, noted that it had been financed in part by a little-known charity called the Foundation for Lung Cancer: Early Detection, Prevention & Treatment. A review of tax records by The New York Times shows that the foundation was underwritten almost entirely by $3.6 million in grants from the parent company of the Liggett Group, maker of Liggett Select, Eve, Grand Prix, Quest and Pyramid cigarette brands.
The foundation got four grants from the Vector Group, Liggett’s parent, from 2000 to 2003.
Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen, editor in chief of the medical journal, said he was surprised. “In the seven years that I’ve been here, we have never knowingly published anything supported by” a cigarette maker, Dr. Drazen said.
Well, Dr. Drazen, knowingly or not, your journal did publish the work. Now what?
This should rock the world of medical science and medical journals.
Stay tuned. Kudos to reporter Harris for digging and shining light on this episode.
Posted by schwitz at March 26, 2008 08:38 AM | TrackBackAt a minimum, the journal will have to publish a correction to the original disclosure.
One wonders whether they will go further than that and retract the article.
There is also a controversy over nondisclosure of certain patents held by these same researchers. JAMA just published a correction related to this.
Marilyn
Posted by: Marilyn at March 26, 2008 11:10 AMHere's the url for the JAMA correction:
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/299.15.jle80054
Posted by: Marilyn at March 26, 2008 11:12 AMpolicy on comments
Guess you won't be publishing any comments from physioprof!
Posted by: Marilyn at March 26, 2008 11:41 AMMy policy on comments
I'm adopting the policy of a blog I admire: “Comments are great;
obnoxious comments get deleted. Deal.” I also won’t post profanity, product pitches, or anything from anyone
who doesn’t list what appears to be an actual e-mail address.