Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center - Clinical Ethics Controversy

Clinical Ethics Controversy

In 2001, the Seattle Times published a controversial series of articles alleging that Hutchinson Center investigators (including the Center's co-founder Dr. E. Donnall Thomas) were conducting unethical clinical studies on cancer patients. The paper alleged that in two cancer studies conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s, patients were not informed about all the risks of the study, nor about the study doctors' financial interest in study outcome. The paper also alleged that this financial interest may have contributed to the doctors' failure to halt the studies despite evidence that patients were dying sooner and more frequently than expected.

The Center's leadership strongly contested the accuracy of the Seattle Times articles, maintaining that the researchers involved did not stand to gain financially and that patients were fully briefed. Still, the Center formed a panel of independent experts to review its existing research practices, leading to adoption of "one of the nation's toughest conflict-of-interest rules."

The Times series prompted families of several patients to sue the Center. The Center fought those allegations in court and largely prevailed. All claims of fraud and conflict of interest were dismissed by the judge prior to trial. The jury found that all of the patients were properly advised of the risks of the treatments they received, and that the Center was not negligent in the deaths of four patients. The jury awarded approximately $1 million to the family of a fifth patient whose bone marrow was damaged during laboratory processing. These events unfolded at a time of national debate over how medical research is conducted and regulated, and other institutions have also opted to strengthen their research policies as a result.