New England Journal changes policies after criticism

In more fallout from publication of a lung cancer screening study, the New England Journal of Medicine has changed its procedures for disclosing potential conflicts of interests by its authors, according to the New York Times.

The Journal published a correction and an editorial in April after reports that Dr. Claudia Henschke and Dr. David Yankelevitz of Cornell had failed to reveal a potential conflict of interest and support for their lung cancer research from a tobacco company. Their October 2006 article said screening with CT scanners was effective in detecting early lung cancer among smokers and former smokers.

The authors received royalty payments from licensing imaging patents to General Electric, maker of the CT scanners in the study. And a foundation that helped to fund the study was largely supported by the parent company of Liggett Tobacco.

Today's Times story relates to continuing medical education credits offered to readers of the New England Journal article. The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, in a letter to The Cancer Letter, a research newsletter, said the Journal and its publisher, the Massachusetts Medical Society, had erred in failing to disclose “relevant financial conflicts of interests of the authors.”

Although Henschke had told the journal that she and Cornell had licensed a patent related to CT screening to GE, the Journal decided not to disclose the existence of this patent to its readers, the story said.

In a letter to the accreditation group, the Journal's editors say its policies have changed.

“When we published Dr. Henschke’s article in 2006 it was not routine NEJM editorial policy to publish details about pending patents,” the letter, dated October 1, 2008, says. “Since that time our thinking on this issue has evolved.”