Nature Medicine Retracts Lung Cancer Immunotherapy Paper Claiming 1-Year Survival Gain
Updated
Updated · dongascience.com · Jun 25
Nature Medicine Retracts Lung Cancer Immunotherapy Paper Claiming 1-Year Survival Gain
3 articles · Updated · dongascience.com · Jun 25
Summary
Nature Medicine withdrew a February paper that said morning immunotherapy halved tumor progression risk and added about one year of survival for lung cancer patients.
Editors said they could no longer trust the results after finding altered trial design and endpoints, signs patients may not have been randomly assigned, protocol mismatches between Chinese and English versions, and unexpected data patterns.
The study had drawn immediate scrutiny because its reported benefit was unusually large and because none of the 210 patients reportedly left the trial due to adverse events—an outcome researchers said is extremely rare in oncology studies.
Yongchang Zhang of Hunan Cancer Hospital told Science an internal review found several problems and apologized, but he did not specify the flaws or how they occurred.
Later evidence also undercut the claim: a March analysis of eight randomized trials covering more than 3,000 lung cancer patients, and another ASCO study, found treatment timing did not improve survival.