Blog #205. Another Case of Fake Medical Science

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute agrees to pay $15 million to settle fraud allegations

Researchers mispresented data and images in scientific journal articles

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has agreed to pay $15 million in a federal settlement, as the Boston research giant admits that researchers mispresented data and images in scientific journal articles.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has agreed to pay $15 million in a federal settlement, as the Boston research giant admits that researchers mispresented data and images in scientific journal articles.

The settlement resolves allegations that Dana-Farber made false statements related to National Institutes of Health research grants.

Two Dana-Farber scientists — or individuals under their supervision — were accused of using inaccurate or altered data or images in publications that were supported by NIH-funded awards, or in grant applications that resulted in federal funding for additional research.

This settlement comes nearly two years after Dana-Farber Cancer announced it was retracting six studies and correcting 31 others, as local scientists faced “data forgery” allegations for their cancer research.

As part of this DOJ settlement announced on Tuesday, Dana-Farber admitted that publications reused images to represent different experimental conditions; duplicated images to represent different testing conditions, mice, and/or timepoints; or rotated, magnified, or stretched images.

Dana-Farber also admitted that a supervising researcher failed to exercise sufficient oversight over the researchers responsible for these publications, and that Dana-Farber spent funds from six NIH grants for these publications that were unallowable.

Another researcher received four NIH grants after submitting grant applications that discussed a journal article authored by the researcher, but did not disclose that certain images and data in that article were misrepresented and/or duplicated.

The Department of Justice “contends that Dana-Farber caused the submission of false claims to NIH by falsely certifying compliance with grant terms and conditions, spending grants funds on unallowable expenses, and obtaining grants through false and misleading statements,” the DOJ said in a statement.

“There is no place in scientific research, particularly cancer research, for fraud, waste and abuse, and my office will continue to investigate institutions, no matter how prestigious, to ensure that research data is not tainted and that taxpayer funds are used appropriately,” Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement.

“Patients, and the medical community, rely on the important research conducted by institutions like Dana-Farber,” she added. “It is critical, to say the least, that all research findings are accurately reported.”

Dana-Farber cooperated with the government in this matter and received credit under the department’s guidelines for taking disclosure, cooperation, and remediation into account in False Claims Act cases.

Dana-Farber said that neither the settlement — nor the related lawsuit — alleged any impact on clinical trials or patient care.

“Our commitment to research integrity is at the core of everything we do,” said Benjamin Ebert, president and CEO of Dana-Farber. “Throughout our nearly 80-year history, we have maintained rigorous standards and high expectations for all our researchers.

“Scientific errors do not meet the high standards that Dana-Farber expects from its researchers, and we act quickly and proactively to address them when they occur,” Ebert added. “Over the past two years and beginning prior to this investigation, we developed and implemented a number of initiatives to enhance our research integrity efforts, improve data hygiene, and prevent avoidable errors in scientific papers.”