The research community was under shock when discovering hidden tobacco money behind a big study suggesting that lung scans might help save smokers from cancer.

In October 2006, a study by Dr. Claudia I. Henschke and Dr. David F. Yankelevitz, both of Weill Cornell Medical College said annual screening with CT scanners was effective in detecting early lung cancer among smokers and former smokers and so, 80 percent of lung cancer deaths could be prevented. However, they did not disclose the extent of their financial ties to the makers of CT scanners or to a foundation supported by a cigarette manufacturer.

The truth came out on Monday when the Journal of the American Medical Association published the study and noted that it had been financed in part by a little-known charity called the Foundation for Lung Cancer: Early Detection, Prevention & Treatment. Following an investigation by The New York Times, it was discovered that the foundation was underwritten almost entirely by $3.6 million in grants from the parent company of the Liggett Group, (maker of Liggett Select, Eve, Grand Prix, Quest and Pyramid cigarette brands), Vector Group. The money were given in four grants from 2000 to 2003.

Vector representative, Paul Caminiti confirmed the grants saying the company “had no control or influence over the research.”

Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen, editor in chief of the JAMA, was more than surprised by this finding, saying: “In seven years that I’ve been here, we have never knowingly published anything supported by” a cigarette maker.

The American Cancer Society also funded Dr. Henschke’s research, but it would not have done it, had it known the source of the grants, the agency’s chief medical officer told the New York Times. “If you’re using blood money, you need to tell people you’re using blood money,” Dr. Otis Brawley said.

On the other hand, Dr. Henschke and Dr. Yankelevitz deny that they tried to hide the source of their funding in an email to the Times.

“It seems clear that you are trying to suggest that Cornell was trying to conceal this gift, which is entirely false. The gift was announced publicly, the advocacy and public health community knew about it, it is quite easy to look it up on the Internet, its board has independent Cornell faculty on it, and it was fully disclosed to grant funding organizations,” they wrote, adding that the Vector grant represents just a small part of the study’s overall cost. In addition, they wrote that the foundation no longer accepts grants from tobacco companies.

Also, Cornell’s dean, Dr. Antonio Gotto, said: “The claim that we set this foundation up in order to cover up the money just isn't true. We made a public announcement that we were taking the money from the tobacco company,” the Associated Press quoted him.

But, Dr. Jerome Kassirer, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine believed Cornell created the Foundation for Lung Cancer in order to hide the scientists’ connection to an industry that is generally not accepted in the cancer-research community.

“You have to ask yourself the question, ‘Why did the tobacco company want to support her research?’ They want to show that lung cancer is not so bad as everybody thinks because screening can save people; and that’s outrageous,” he said.

Unfortunately, this is not the only case when doctors and institutions are setting up foundations to accept money from companies without having to disclose their source, according to Dr. Murray Kopelow, chief executive of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. “This is the third time in the past few weeks that one of these has been identified to us,” Dr. Kopelow, whose organization is investigating how widespread the practice is, said.

This way of collecting suspicious money is bad for the scientific world, as scientists must maintain the trust of patients in research studies, and “any breach of that trust is not simply disappointing but, I believe, unacceptable,” Dr. John Niederhuber, director of the National Cancer Institute, said in a statement, according to AP.

This opinion is also embraced by Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group who said that any findings from a study tainted by hidden industry ties ”will be much less believable.” He also added that “there are plenty of people around who are bright and knowledgeable and don’t have conflicts of interest. We need to look harder to find these people.”