Review Finds Conflicts of Interest in Many Cancer Studies

[Guest guest]

Certainly this isn’t the first time we have heard this. However, it

is something to remember the next time a doc says “according to clinical

studies”…..

 

Review finds conflicts of interest in many cancer studies

Published: Sunday, May 10, 2009 - 23:42 in Psychology

& Sociology

A new analysis finds that a considerable number of clinical cancer studies

published in respected medical journals have financial connections to

pharmaceutical companies. Published in the June 15, 2009 issue of CANCER,

a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates

that conflicts of interest may cause some researchers to report biased results

that are favorable to companies. Ties between clinical researchers and

companies that make medical devices and drugs have become increasingly complex

and controversial, particularly as more researchers compete for scarce federal

research funds. In addition to using industry money to support their research,

some investigators receive consulting fees, own stock and hold positions within

companies that profit from selling the very products they are investigating.

These conflicts of interest have raised concerns that studies with ties to

industry are biased and are not designed to provide a true test of medical

therapies. Many medical journals now require researchers to disclose potential

conflicts of interest in the articles they submit for publication.

To get sense of the frequency and impact of conflicts of interest in

clinical cancer research, Dr. Reshma Jagsi of the University of Michigan and

colleagues reviewed cancer studies appearing in eight highly regarded journals

in 2006. These journals included the New England Journal of Medicine; JAMA;

the Lancet; the Journal of Clinical Oncology; the Journal of

the National Cancer Institute; Lancet Oncology; Clinical Cancer

Research; and CANCER.

Of the 1,534 cancer studies identified in these journals, 29 percent had

conflicts of interest that were apparent from review of published author

declarations and authorship lists (including industry funding, consulting fees

to authors, co-authorship by industry employees, etc.), and 17 percent declared

industry funding. Conflicts of interest were most often found in articles with

primary authors from departments in medical oncology (45 percent), those from

North America (33 percent), and those with male first and senior authors (37

percent).

According to the authors, randomized clinical trials that assessed patient

survival were more likely to report a survival advantage associated with the

intervention when a conflict of interest was present. These trials are the

foundation by which drugs, technologies, diagnostic tests, etc. get approved

for use in the clinic and therefore shape the way oncologists practice

medicine.

The findings also show that studies with industry funding were more likely

to focus on treatment than studies without industry funding (62 percent vs. 36

percent). They were less likely than studies not declaring industry funding to

focus on epidemiology, prevention, risk factors, screening or diagnostic

methods (20 percent vs. 47 percent).

This analysis revealed that conflicts of interest exist in a considerable

number of clinical cancer research articles published in important journals.

The authors noted that " attempts to disentangle the cancer research effort

from industry merit further attention, and journals should embrace both

rigorous standards of disclosure and heightened scrutiny when conflicts

exist. "

Source: American Cancer

Society

 

Be Well~

 

Loretta Lanphier, ND,

CN, HHP, CH

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