Deception at Duke: Fraud in cancer care?

[lostincalifornia]

Last edited Fri Aug 15, 2025, 11:14 AM - Edit history (1)

"Chemotherapy can be a tough road for people with cancer, often debilitating and even dangerous. Which is why five years ago, when Duke University announced that it had an advanced, experimental treatment that would match chemotherapy to a patient's own genetic makeup, it was hailed as the holy grail of cancer care. The scientist behind the discovery was Dr. Anil Potti, and soon Dr. Potti became the face of the future of cancer treatment at Duke, offering patients a better chance even with advanced disease. However, when other scientists set out to verify the results, they found many problems and errors. What our 60 Minutes investigation reveals is that Duke's so-called breakthrough treatment wasn't just a failure -- it may end up being one of the biggest medical research frauds ever.

The following is a script of "Deception at Duke" which aired on Feb. 12, 2012. Scott Pelley is the correspondent. Kyra Darnton, producer.

Five years ago, Duke University announced it had found the holy grail of cancer research. They'd discovered how to match a patient's tumor to the best chemotherapy drug. It was a breakthrough because every person's DNA is unique, so every tumor is different. A drug that kills a tumor in one person, for example, might not work in another. The research was published in the most prestigious medical journals. And more than a hundred desperately ill people invested their last hopes in Duke's innovation.

In 2010, we learned that the new method was a failure. But what isn't widely known, until tonight, is that the discovery wasn't just a failure, it may end up being one of the biggest medical research frauds ever - one that deceived dying patients, the best medical journals and a great university."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deception-at-duke-fraud-in-cancer-care/

Some may ask why is this story being posted that occurred so long ago in 2012?

For one thing I thing many are unaware of this story.
Stat+ has highlighted this story the last two days and has pointed out that this story and others are being used by the administration to justify cuts to reseach, and discredit "all scientific research endeavors", at the expense of the public good, to advance their only special interests:

https://www.statnews.com/2025/08/13/duke-cancer-research-fraud-mit-potti-kornbluth/

"The Trump administration has pointed to a rash of scientific misconduct scandals to justify cuts to research funding and proposals to reimagine the way science is conducted. Top officials, including director of the National Institutes of Health Jay Bhattacharya and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have questioned the ability of peer-reviewed journals to enforce high standards by researchers and adhere to scientific objectivity. Others, including Vice President JD Vance, have cast universities as cynical institutions that advance their own interests at the expense of the public good.

[yardwork]

1. This is from 2012. Duke has taken enormous steps to prevent this ever happening again.

Currently Duke is under attack by the Trump administration. Hundreds of highly ethical hardworking scientists are losing their funding for no good reason.

I'm curious and disappointed that this is being posted here now. It happened 15 years ago.

[chia]

2. This is from 2012. Why is this being posted?

[obamanut2012]

3. Why are you posting somethig 13 years old

[lostincalifornia]

5. You are absolutely right, and I neglected to include in the OP, which i have since modified to explain why.

Stat+ has been trending this story for the last two days to highlight that this is what the trump administration has been using to justify their cost cuts in scientific research. It is misguided, harmful, and a disservice to the country and the world.

Unfortunately, I cannot produce the whole stat+ article because it would violate copyright issues. Nevertheless, I added the Stat+ link, and the part explaining the deception that the current WH has been using.

Thank-you for pointing out my oversight.

[yardwork]

7. Thanks for explaining that.

If anything, this story shows how important it is to have a rigorous system of oversight in scientific inquiry.

Those are the checks and balances that Trump and Musk have just dismantled! They fired all the watchdogs.

Yes, con artists are everywhere. Who is going to protect us from them now?

[lostincalifornia]

8. Absolutely. I definitely missed the mark by not fully providing context.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Charlatans are timeless

The financial incentives distort science in some cases.

I know. It's old. There will be modern ones with different details, somewhere else.

I'm reading a biography, "Unshrunk: A story of psychiatric treatment resistance" by Laura Delano. Yes, related to those Delano's. Psychiatry and psychology have a lot to answer for.

[lostincalifornia]

6. MIT president Sally Kornbluth responds to Globe report on academic fraud case at Duke

"MIT President Sally Kornbluth responded in a statement Wednesday to a Globe report detailing her time as an administrator at Duke amid a cancer research scandal more than a decade ago, saying she learned lessons from the case that “have powerfully shaped my approach to leadership ever since.”

Kornbluth said she described the case to MIT’s search committee before she was selected as the institute’s new president in 2022.

The Globe’s story, which published online Wednesday morning, said Kornbluth was the dean overseeing clinical research at Duke Medical School when researchers raised concerns about the work of Dr. Anil Potti, who claimed to have created algorithms that could analyze tumors and pick the best chemotherapy cocktail to treat cancer patients.

Potti’s work led to clinical trials that began enrolling patients in 2007. A federal investigation later revealed that Potti had been manipulating data. Critics said some leaders at Duke, including Kornbluth, were slow to shut down the trials after other researchers raised serious concerns.

Patients and their loved ones sued, and Duke settled in 2015 for an undisclosed sum.

In her statement Wednesday, Kornbluth said she was “new to university administration” at the time.

“One formative lesson was the vital importance of establishing and following rigorous and timely internal investigative processes and ensuring that they are entirely independent from those who undertook the work,” she said.

Kornbluth said the case “led to concrete improvements in Duke’s research infrastructure.”


https://www.statnews.com/2025/08/14/mit-president-response-duke-cancer-fraud-investigation/