How Money Affects Results in Breast Cancer Studies

Breast cancer studies funded by pharmaceutical companies are more likely to report positive, or beneficial, results than those funded by government or non-profit organizations, according to a new report in the Journal Cancer. That doesn't necessarily mean that the results are wrong, as Amanda Gardner points out in the Washington Post. You would expect drug companies to have a better track record in researching new drugs.

But the Cancer study also fits with previous research that shows that scientists in general are less likely to report (and journals are less likely to publish) negative results--in which a drug or other therapy didn't work--than positive ones. Now add the typical reluctance of a for-profit company to announce that a drug it's developing doesn't work, and you have a bias against studies that show negative results.

That doesn't mean that for-profit drug companies are bad. It just goes to show that you knowing who funded a particular study can be just as important to evaluating a study as understanding the science behind it.