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Last Updated: Tuesday, 20 November 2007, 16:30 GMT
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How cancer studies wasted cash
AfricaAmericasAsia-PacificEuropeMiddle East
South Asia
UKBusinessBy Gerry Northam
File On 4Expensive and timeconsuming work inlaboratories around theworld has rendered many
cancers treatable, bringing
added years, even decades,for countless patients andtheir families.

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So it comes as a shock to learn Cell-line mistakes have madethousands of cancer studies invalidthat millions of pounds incharitable donations and from taxpayers are being wasted on"worthless" research for lack of good housekeeping practicein the lab.
BBC File On 4 has discovered that many scientists fail tocarry out simple and inexpensive checks to ensure that theyare working with the right experimental materials - particularforms of human cancer cells.

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As a result, thousands of studies are invalid.
The experience of Dr Chris Tselepis at the Cancer Research
UK laboratories in Birmingham University, highlights theproblem.

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Cancer studies 'wasted millions'
20 Nov 07 | File on 4

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For more than 20 years, researchers in many countries haveused a particular experimental culture of cancer cells known
as TE7 to study one type of oesophageal cancer.

Cancer Research UK
Medical Research Council
The BBC is not responsible for thecontent of external internet sites

This 'cell-line' has been sold worldwide and formed the basisof hundreds of published studies.

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But Dr Tselepis and aninternational group ofcolleagues discovered that TE7is the wrong type of cancer,
and the implications for two
decades of study are grave.

It is an incredible
frustration because brain
tumour research is extremely
poorly funded and its hardfought money and when we
get money into the laboratory
we need to produce goodstrong results, good strong
data and we need to reportback to those organisations
which are mainly charities
who are funding our research.

"If there's a study which isclaiming that a particular drug
has a particular effect on a cell
type and potentially you could
use this drug for theProf Geoff Pilkington, University oftreatment of patients thatPortsmouthclearly is going to be misfounded," he explained.

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The result is a waste of time and money.
But how can this happen?
The problem of misidentification of cell-lines arises because
to the naked eye they look similar - a cluster of tiny dots onthe bottom of a laboratory flask.

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Even under a powerful microscope, it can be hard to tell one
cancer cell from another.
Professor Geoff Pilkington, of the University of Portsmouthlearned this the hard way , "There are two incidences that
I'm aware of in the laboratories whereby we've had what wecall squeaky contaminants and these are whereby our humancell lines, where those have become contaminated with either
rat or mouse cell lines."
It meant the whole research into brain tumours had to bebinned and started again.
"It is an incredible frustration
because brain tumour researchis extremely poorly funded andits hard-fought money andwhen we get money into thelaboratory we need to produce
good strong results, goodstrong data and we need toreport back to thoseorganisations which are mainly Some academics have called for toughcharities who are funding our action to authenticate cell-lines
research."
The problems created by contaminated or misidentified celllines have a wider impact as studies based on the wrong
materials regularly find their way into scientific journals andbecome part of the accepted literature - muddying thefoundation for further research.
This danger troubles one of Britain's leading experts, Karol
Sikora Professor of Cancer Medicine at Imperial CollegeLondon.
Although he is quick to point out that no patient is likely to
be directly harmed by such invalid lab work.
'Sloppy science'"One of the problems of course is that investigators arecompetitive, eager to get the results. They don't want towaste their time doing what they regard as a technicalexercise, typing the cell lines. They believe someone elseshould do it for them. And that's led to this sloppiness, I
guess, in science."
And even after a false cell-line has been unmasked, scientists
carry on using it as if it were the real thing while otherstudies are utterly invalidated by the error.
Professor Gertrude Buehring, found a third of studies
involving a false cell-line in publications from 1969 to 2004
used it in an invalid way as if it were the cell type of origin
and obviously having no idea it was a contaminant.
The expert on leukaemia and breast cancer at the Universityof California in Berkeley, was one of 19 eminent specialists
from Britain and America who wrote this summer to theUnited States Health Secretary calling for tough action toeliminate such "worthless" research.
The Director of the Federal Research Agency National
Institutes of Health responded: "There appears to beabundant evidence that contaminated or misidentified
cultures have compromised the validity of many studies andpublications."

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BBC NEWS | Programmes | File on 4 | How cancer studies wasted cash

But the response fromscientists was lukewarm
according to the originator of
the Open Letter, Professor
Roland Nardone of theCatholic University of America.

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We would expect labs toauthenticate their work or use
properly-sourced cells.
Dr Rob Buckle, Medical ResearchCouncil"They morphed into ostriches, is the best explanation I
have."He now advocates zero tolerance with respect to advocating"no authentication, no grant; no authentication, nopublication in a good scientific journal.
" We wanted to ask the editors of leading UK journals andfunding bodies their response to the no authentication, nopublication policy.
No-one from the leading British journal 'Nature' was available
for interview. Nor was the editor of the British Journal ofCancer.
The journal's parent body, Cancer Research UK, did not put
up anyone for interview but in a statement stressed it carriedout stringent checks on its own bank of cell-lines, including aDNA authenticating service.
And there was a cautious response from the leading sourceof public funding, the Medical Research Council, which
spends £500m of public money a year - more than £70m ofit on cancer research.
Cell authentication
The MRC's Dr Rob Buckle said: "We would expect labs toauthenticate their work or use properly-sourced cells."
It may seem unbelievable to those outside the scientificestablishment that there should be a problem of using false
research samples especially when a relatively cheap
authentication process is now available.
But even within the establishment, voices are now calling forscience to put its house in order, joined by Prof Sikora.
"I think we as a scientific community have to do something
about it. Just no grant or no publication, but no publication isprobably more powerful. If one of the leading journals, which
all of us want to publish in, said 'okay, you have used celllines, wonderful, just give us the certificate of authenticity.'
Now we can tell all that and it doesn't necessarily cost a lotof money."
You hear the full story on File On 4, Tuesday 20
November 2007, 2000 GMT, repeated Sunday 25
November 2007, 1700 GMT.

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