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Disclosure of Financial Conflicts of Interest by Authors Publishing in the Journal of Clinical Oncology

Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, Gundersen Lutheran Health System, La Crosse, WI

Michelle A. Mathiason, Jennifer A. Lee

Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation, Gundersen Lutheran Health System, La Crosse, WI

We read with interest the study by Riechelmann et al¹ regarding disclosure of financial conflicts of interest (FCOIs) among authors in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). We recently presented a similar study at the 2007 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting and would like to comment on and complement to their findings.² While Riechelmann et al covered clinical trials and editorials for slightly over a year (January 1, 2005 to January 31, 2006), our study also included all types of original articles as well as reviews, but was limited to only 6 months (August 1, 2005 to January 31, 2006).

Riechelmann et al found that FCOIs were prevalent among the clinical trials, with 70% declaring at least one FCOI. However, in only about a quarter of these trials was research grant the sole form of FCOI. Using Tables 2 and 3 in their study, one can calculate the specific distribution of FCOI categories among authors with positive disclosures. Research grants and employment comprised only a small proportion of the total FCOIs: 19.1% and 11.7%, and 14.3% and 2.4% for authors of clinical trials and editorials, respectively. Taken together, more than two thirds of FCOIs (69.9%) were not directly relevant to the conduct of clinical research being published. In our study, we found 34.1% of all the articles we included having one or more FCOIs with the following breakdown: clinical trials (58.3%), editorials (32.4%), other original articles (21.1%), and reviews (18.6%). When analyzed according to type of cancer, lung cancer articles had the most prevalent FCOIs (52.7%), followed by GI (40.1%), breast (35.2%), hematologic (29.6%), and genitourinary (24.1%) cancers.

With regards to the monetary level of FCOI, JCO made this information available to the readers starting with the August 1, 2005, issue in a clear tabular format, but was not reported again since the November 1, 2006, issue for unknown reason. It was reassuring from the data provided by Riechelmann et al to know that the monetary values of FCOIs (employment not included) among authors of clinical trials were mostly under US$10,000 (542 of 836 or 64.8%). However, when one focuses on the FCOIs with values of US$10,000, only 50.0% (147 of 294) were research grants. This suggests that clinical researchers deriving a relatively larger sum of nonresearch grant–related money from the health industry is common. Although research evidence is lacking, it is hard not to think that not all FCOIs are the same, especially when one considers the monetary level of disclosure. In fact, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Conflict of Interest Policy arbitrarily regards de minimus payments totaling less than US$100 as exempt from disclosure requirements.³ One prominent journal uses US$10,000 as a cutoff value for disclosure,⁴ whereas another uses a practical alternative guideline, "Any undeclared competing financial interests that could embarrass you were they to become publicly known after your work was published."⁵ To our knowledge, currently none of the oncology journals (and perhaps any medical journal) disclose the monetary value of FCOIs to the readership, even though some journals routinely collect the data during manuscript submission.^6,7

Finally, we echo the conclusion by Riechelmann et al, that further research is necessary to understand how FCOIs affect the conduct and interpretation of research studies in oncology. To make this happen, full disclosure from authors and complete transparency from journals are necessary.

AUTHORS’ DISCLOSURES OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The author(s) indicated no potential conflicts of interest.

REFERENCES

1. Riechelmann RP, Wang L, O'Carroll A, et al: Disclosure of conflicts of interest by authors or clinical trials and editorials in oncology. J Clin Oncol 25:4642-4647, 2007[Abstract/Free Full Text]

2. George B, Simhan S, Lee JA, Mathiason MA, et al: Conflicts of interest among articles published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. J Clin Oncol 25:355s, 2007 (suppl; abstr 6633)

3. American Society of Clinical Oncology: Revised conflict of interest policy. J Clin Oncol 24:519-521, 2006[Free Full Text]

4. Journal of Clinical Investigation: Conflict of interest policy. http://www.jci.org/misc/conflict_of_interest.pdf

5. Nature: Editorial policy on competing financial interest. http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/competing.html

6. New England Journal of Medicine: Standard disclosure form. http://authors.nejm.org/help/acHelp.asp

7. Science: Conflict of interest disclosure. http://www.sciencemag.org/about/authors/prep/coi.dtl

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Go, R. S. Articles by Lee, J. A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Go, R. S. Articles by Lee, J. A.