Panel Seeks Background on Lung Researchers

A U.S. congressional committee wants to know if the tobacco industry has influenced a study on whether annual scans of smokers’ lungs saves lives.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees medical-research issues, is concerned about the outcome and credibility of the 10-year, $200 million, government-funded National Lung Screening Trial.

Committee members asked the National Cancer Institute to examine the financial records of about 50 researchers to see if they have received money from the tobacco industry, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Two of the trial’s leading researchers previously have testified as paid experts for tobacco companies now facing lawsuits to force them to pay for smokers’ annual lung scans, the Journal reported.

The tobacco industry has clear financial interest in the outcome of the lung trial, said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the committee.

The two researchers Denise Aberle, at the University of California, and William Black, at Dartmouth College, have said their testimony for the tobacco industry has no influence over their work on government studies.