Cancer expert allegedly tinkered with research data in Norway

Cancer expert allegedly tinkered with research data in Norway

OSLO - After the South Korean stem cell fiasco, another case of doctored research data has come to light, this time in Norway. It is reported that Dr Jon Sudbo, a supposedly certified cancer expert at Norway's Comprehensive Cancer Center, falsified patient data related to the treatment of oral cancer.

Sudbo's research article was published in the October 2005 issue of The Lancet, a leading medical journal in Britain. The article, titled "non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the risk of oral cancer," purported that drugs like aspirin decreased the risk of developing oral cancer.

A colleague of the said author disputed these findings and after Sudbo was confronted, he admitted to faking the patient data. According to a Norwegian daily Dagbladet, around 250 patients of a sample of 968 cases in Sudbo's research had the same birth date! "The material was fabricated," said Trine Lind, a spokeswoman of the Norwegian Radium Hospital.

"We are shocked. This is the worst thing that could happen in a research institution like ours." Sudbo has worked in the institute as a doctor as well as a researcher. The hospital also said that a panel would be reviewing how this fabrication escaped their vigil. Dr Sudbo has also published two other articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, which would be reviewed by the panel. The hospital has suspended all of Dr Sudbo's ongoing research projects in the department of Medical Oncology and Radiotherapy and was also reviewing his case as far as rendering actual treatment to patients was concerned.

Meanwhile, the journal Science said today that it was unconditionally withdrawing articles by South Korean stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk that claimed to have cloned a human embryo. Hwang publicly admitted to falsifying that data and Science decided to retract the said articles.