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BREAST CANCER FIASCO:
MAJOR SCANDAL ROCKS NCI;
BRODER'S JOB NOW IN DOUBT
From The Cancer Chronicles #21
© May 1994 by Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
By now, most people have heard how Montreal cancer
researchers faked the data they sent to the National
Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) of NCI;
and how this fraud contaminated more than two dozen breast
cancer studies (L.A. Times 4/2). This led to the removal of
Bernard Fisher of the University of Pittsburgh as head of
NSABP. It also triggered Congressional hearings, with public
apologies from top NIH officials.
Less known is the role of NCI itself in hiding this fraud from the
American public. It turns out that the facts of the case were
known to the federal Office of Research Integrity for three
years. ORI sent these allegations to Dr. Samuel Broder, NCI
director, who then sat on them.
"These findings were never communicated directly
to some of the investigators in the study or to the
New England Journal of Medicine, which published the
original papers," wrote Science (3/25/94). In addition,
"no reanalysis of the study's results excluding the fraudulent
data has yet been published."
Although ORI itself published facts about the fraud in its
newsletter, not a single mainstream science writer picked up on
the story until the Chicago Tribune wrote about it in March
1994. Then NCI issued a too-little, too-late statement and the
mainstream media followed suit. Under Congressional pressure,
Federal officials are now also investigating another component of
the story: why a known carcinogen, the drug tamoxifen, is being
given to 8,000 healthy women to see if it can prevent breast
cancer [see C.C. #18]. Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) has accused NIH
of covering up uterine cancers among women in the tamoxifen
study. Recruitment into all studies that were under Dr. Fisher's
aegis have now been suspended.
According to the New York Times (4/26/94), "Dr. Broder's job as
NCI director has been jeopardized by the way his agency has
handled the scandal." The fraud elicited strong response from a
number of critics, including Irwin Bross, PhD, formerly director
of biostatistics at Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo.
Bross wrote:
"Women and doctors were not only the victims of a dangerous
scientific fraud, they were the victims of a cover-up of this fraud
by NCI officials, including... Samuel Broder. "National Cancer
Institute 'spin doctors' and their 'cheerleaders'--reporters who
have become advocates of NCI and its policies--continued to
falsely claim or imply that there was nothing seriously wrong
with the findings from the fraudulent studies....Who will tell
American women the truth?" he asks.
Coordinator Anne Beattie
@ 144 St. John's Place,
Brooklyn, NY 11217;
Phone 718-636-4433
Fax 718-636-0186