University Apologizes to Cancer Scientist in Research Dispute
PITTSBURGH — A noted cancer researcher accused of scientific wrongdoing has been vindicated.
“This now permits me to go more full steam,†Dr. Bernard Fisher said Thursday. “We have so much data that is just sitting there waiting to be looked at and studied and analyzed.â€
The University of Pittsburgh apologized for removing him as director of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project in 1994 after he was accused of being too slow in revealing problems in the study.
The apology Wednesday and an undisclosed sum of money settled Fisher’s lawsuit against the school, a law firm that represented it, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health.
The settlement was the last step in restoring the reputation of the man whose research has been credited with sparing women’s breasts while saving their lives.
Fisher and Jane Duffield, spokeswoman for University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, declined to say how much money was involved. Anne Thomas, a spokeswoman for the National Institutes of Health, said the federal government’s share was $300,000 to cover part of Fisher’s legal costs.
Fisher, 78, has studied breast cancer for 40 years. He proved that radiation therapy plus lumpectomy, or removal of the malignant tumor, guarded against the recurrence of cancer as effectively as the removal of an entire breast plus surrounding tissue.
In 1993, the federal Office of Research Integrity found that a Montreal physician in the project had faked data about the eligibility of some patients for a breast cancer study.
The National Cancer Institute, the project sponsor, asked Fisher to subtract the false information and reanalyze the data. He did so within 10 months.
The institute rebuked Fisher, saying he was slow to reveal the problems; that his auditors failed to find problems with information from 10 other researchers; and that he failed to inform volunteers for his study of a cancer drug that four people who died had contracted uterine cancer.
Fisher said there was no hurry to announce the problems because they did not affect the research results.
He said that after the researchers discovered a possible link between the drug, tamoxifen, and uterine cancer, he quickly informed federal officials. And he said overseeing the project became harder after thousands of women joined the study.
The institute forced the university to remove Fisher as project director, allowing him to remain as scientific director.
