A connection between a tobacco company and a funded lung cancer study was revealed today.

The New York Times released a recent report regarding a study in 2006, when Dr. Claudia Henschke of Weill Cornell Medical College stunned the cancer world with her research suggesting that near 80% of lung cancer deaths could be prevented with the use of CT scans.

Since her support and research was released, the use of CT scans increased across the country and the world.

At the end of the article, the authors stated: "No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported."

The study was partially funded by a small charity, the Foundation for Lung Cancer: Early Detection and Treatment. This small charity was not well known and did not attract attention until recently.

It now appears that the contribution to this charity was made by the Liggett Group that makes cigarettes under the brands Eve, Grand Prix, Quest and Pyramids.

This recent discovery regarding the donated money raises questions about the research and the motivation behind it or supporting it.

According to the Cancer Letter, a newsletter on cancer research and funding, researchers led by Henschke failed to disclose to scientific journals that there were connections between the charity and the cigarette maker.

"It makes mockery of any standard of relevance," Merrell Goozner, a reporter and director of the Integrity in Science project Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C.
said.

"The university is laundering this money and didn't disclose it in journal."

In defense of the claims, supporters of the research study have stated that they needed to raise the funds to complete the study and that they no longer accept funding from tobacco sources.