It’s come to light that a 2006 study claiming 80% of lung cancer deaths may be prevented with CT scans was actually funded by a tobacco company. The New England Journal of Medicine made this known last month. Interestingly, it appears that the New York Times prompted the Journal to act. The source of funding for the study in the October 26, 2006, issue of the Journal was reported by the Times on March 26th. The Journal wrote in its recent editorial:

We and our readers were surprised to learn that the source of the funding of the charitable foundation was, in fact, a large corporation that could have an interest in the study results. It is important to ask whether a study on clinical outcomes in lung cancer should be directly underwritten in part by the tobacco industry.

It appears that Vector Group Ltd., parent of Liggett Tobacco, contributed $3.6 million, or “virtually all” of the funding for the Foundation for Lung Cancer, which backed the study. The researchers had disclosed receiving royalties from Cornell Research Foundation, which had invented some scanning tests and licensed them to General Electric Co., which makes computed tomographic, or CT, scanners. The Journal did not include that disclosure in the 2006 publication, but has now corrected that oversight. Frankly, I am not at all surprised that a tobacco company funded a study that directly affected its business. That sort of thing has happened before in industries other than the tobacco industry and those companies have gotten away with it. In fact, our firm often has to deal with studies financed by companies that have a vested interest in the results. Such studies are used against our clients in lawsuits and are less than objective.

Source: Bloomberg

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