Once again we have arrived at a Sunday and the day that I try to help my readers with subjects that may not be readily available for them.
Since my better half, Sue, has been battling cancer I try to keep up with all the research that is available….and then I read something like this and it just sends me into a spiral….
Cancer research is big business, sorry to pout it that way, and there have been some fraud going on….
Dana-Farber was rocked this January by a blog post by Sholto David, a molecular biologist and internet data sleuth, in which he presented evidence of widespread data manipulation in cancer research published by leading researchers including the institute’s CEO and COO. David reportedly contacted the institute with concerns about 57 papers, 38 of which were ones for which the institute had “primary responsibility for the potential data errors.” The institute has requested retractions for 6 of them and initiated corrections for 31.
These data manipulations, to be clear, were not subtle. (David’s fairly bombastic blog post announcing the evidence calls it “pathetically amateurish and excessive.”) Many of the cases he identifies involved reusing the same images over and over in different figures, with different labels, and with the figures having been clumsily rotated or stretched in Photoshop or a similar image editor. Plots of data collection on different days are mysteriously perfectly identical. Test results are visibly copied and pasted.
It raises the question: Assuming that there was some misconduct behind the copied-and-pasted images, how were people so emboldened to commit such blatant fraud, so publicly, for such a long time? How much grant money was secured on the basis of fabricated data, and how much was the crucial fight against cancer set back by inaccuracies promulgated in these papers?
And perhaps most importantly, is this only the tip of the iceberg?
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24086809/fake-cancer-research-data-scientific-fraud
This story raises questions for me….if the research is faked then are the treatments really doing any good?
What happens to those faking the test results?
Cancer research is a multi-billion dollar cash cow for some….what is the government doing to stop this sort of fraud?
All good question but with few answers.
Sorry to be a bummer on this Sunday.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
I asked my cancer urologist about this shameful conduct a dozen years ago and why didn’t the US mobilize a unified nationwide research effort. He replied that the researchers don’t want that. The research labs, the hospitals, the pharmaceutical companies, the medical universities all hide their research because each wants the sole ownership of medicine patents so there’s no common sharing and everyone wants funding to keep their salaries in this redundancy scheme .Espionage between these entities occurs and just like in any war spewing out disinformation to derail one’s rivals is also a tool used by the medical researchers.
Like everything it is about the cash….not the life saving possibilities. chuq
I have always said that I believe that there will never be a cure for cancer because it is such a profitable cash cow for so many medical specialties. However I will always maintain that a person with unending flows of money will always have a better chance of controlling or making a cancer go into remission than an ordinary person with more limited means. Of course, what do I know?
It is about the cash as is most medical research…..chuq
I have always said that I believe there will never be a cure for cancer because it is such a cash cow for so many medical specialties and I am convinced that the people with unlimited means have a better chance of dealing positively with cancer than people of lesser means. Call me a cynic if you want.
I have tried twice already to comment on this with no visible results so I will try this one last time: I have always said that there will never be a cure for cancer as long as it is such a cash cow for so many medical specialties.
Your comment came in as “Someone’….they got through. chuq
I have attempted three times today to leave a comment on this article and there are no indications that I have been successful.
So much research, so many companies, charities, and organisations supposedly ‘fighting’ canncer. Yet cases are on the increase, cures remain mostly ‘temporary’, and very little changes. It’s a fair question to ask, “Where has all the money gone?”
Best wishes, Pete.
Indeed! It is a multi-billion dollar enterprise it will be milking the system for decades more. chuq