Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11553

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Publication type: Journal Article

White C.
Cancer expert attacks drug company's funding of research paper.
BMJ 2007 Sep 8; 335:(7618):469
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/335/7618/469-a

Abstract:

A leading cancer epidemiologist has heavily criticised the funding and science of a report that compares different rates of cancer survival in 25 countries. The report linked cancer survival with access to new and innovative drugs.

The Karolinska 2 report, published earlier this year in the Annals of Oncology, concluded that access to cancer drugs affected survival and that the licensing process should be speeded up, with equitable access for all (2007;18(suppl 3):iii2-7).

But the epidemiologist Michel Coleman, who heads the cancer survival group of Cancer Research UK, has in the latest issue of the same journal questioned the credibility of the figures and methods used to arrive at these conclusions (2007;18:1433-5).

He says that estimates rather than actual survival rates were used. And the benefits of access to drugs were calculated using data for about 2003 but for patients who were diagnosed between 1990 and 1994, and the . . .

Keywords:
Publication Types: News MeSH Terms: Drug Industry/economics* Drug Industry/ethics Humans Neoplasms/mortality* Research Support*