Research and Big Tobacco: Strange Bedfellows

Dr. Claudia Henschke, the main proponent of using CT scans to screen for lung cancer, has received some criticism for not disclosing the source of her funding. Her article in The New England Journal of Medicine states that some of the money came from the “Foundation for Lung Cancer: Early Detection, Prevention & Treatment.”

According to the New York Times, tax records revealed that the said foundation received 3.6 million dollars from tobacco companies. Dr. Jerome Kassirer, former editor of the NEJM, posits that Henschke’s group created the foundation to hide the fact that it was using blood money.

“You have to ask yourself the question, ‘Why did the tobacco company want to support her research?’ ” Dr. Kassirer said. “They want to show that lung cancer is not so bad as everybody thinks because screening can save people; and that’s outrageous.”

Henschke’s colleagues deny any cover up, stating that there was no effort to hide the fact that a tobacco company was making a contribution.

I have to agree with Alice Park of Time Magazine here: this has more to do about the integrity of the researchers than the scientific soundness of the study itself.

Read the research article for yourself:

Henschke, et al. Survival of Patients with Stage I Lung Cancer Detected on CT Screening. The International Early Lung Cancer Action Program Investigators. New England Journal of Medicine. Volume 355:1763-1771