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Conflict of Interest Controversy Casts Cloud Over Research Into CT Scanning for Lung Cancer 

The controversy surrounding computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer has reached new heights, with revelations this week that the research was funded by a tobacco company and earlier revelations that the researchers involved held patents on the technology used.

Principal proponent of the CT scanning approach for lung cancer, Claudia Henschke, MD, PhD, from the New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, has claimed that her research provides compelling evidence that CT scanning saves lives, and that it can reduce mortality from lung cancer by 80%. These claims, based on data from the International Early Lung Cancer Action Project (I-ELCAP) reported in October 2006 in the New England Journal of Medicine (2006;355:1763-1771), were widely publicized in the lay media. They also led to calls from advocacy groups for widespread use of CT scanning for smokers and others at high risk for lung cancer. . . .

"LCA’s long-held position is that big tobacco's deceitful marketing and cover-up of tobacco's harms has led directly to the underfunding of lung cancer research," the letter states, adding: "Is seeking these and other penalty payments to advance research to help victims then wrong?"

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