Questions are raised on cancer research
Study received tobacco money
NEW YORK - In October 2006, Dr. Claudia Henschke of Weill Cornell Medical College roiled 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. But a review of tax records by The
The foundation got four grants from the
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, Drazen said.
An increasing number of universities do not accept grants from cigarette makers, and a growing awareness of the influence that companies can have over research outcomes has led nearly all medical journals and associations to demand that researchers accurately disclose financing sources.
Henschke served as the foundation's president, and her longtime collaborator, Dr. David Yankelevitz, was its secretary treasurer.
Vector issued a news release on Dec. 4, 2000, saying that it intended to give $2.4 million to Weill Cornell to fund Henschke's research. Stories in Business Week and USA Today mentioned the gift. No mention was made of the foundation, begun so hastily that its 2000 tax return stated "not yet organized."
Paul Caminiti, a Vector spokesman, confirmed that the company donated $3.6 million to the foundation over three years. The company "had no control or influence over the research," he said.
Prominent cancer researchers and journal editors, told of the foundation by the Times, said that they were stunned to learn of Henschke's association with Liggett.
"If you're using blood money, you need to tell people you're using blood money," said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. The society gave Henschke more than $100,000 in grants between 2004 and 2007, money it would not have provided had it known of Liggett's grants, Brawley said.
In an e-mail message, Henschke and Yankelevitz wrote that "it seems clear that you are trying to suggest that Cornell was trying to conceal this gift, which is entirely false."
"The gift was announced publicly, the advocacy and public health community knew about it, it is quite easy to look it up on the Internet, its board has independent Cornell faculty on it, and it was fully disclosed to grant funding organizations," they wrote, adding that the Vector grant represented a small part of the study's overall cost.
The foundation no longer accepts grants from tobacco companies, they wrote. 