Feb 16 2010
Connecticut Pathologist Sin Hang Lee, MD, has filed a complaint
with the international Council of Science Editors alleging the
prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (Journal) is
suppressing dissenting evidence in favor of a $10 billion “unnecessary
cervical biopsy industry that protects special interest groups.”
“to publish current, authoritative,
and unbiased information about advances in medical research”
Initially the Journal editor used “its
focus, content, and interest” of the submission as
the basis for not considering Dr. Lee’s manuscript
for publication. After Dr.
Lee pointed out that to convey the focus, content and
interest of his submission to the readers is actually consistent with
the Journal’s stated mission “to publish current, authoritative,
and unbiased information about advances in medical research,” the Journal’s
final rejection noted: “Due
to the volume of submissions, we must decline over 92 percent of the
manuscripts that we receive.”
“The reasoning of rejection as stated in the two editorial letters lacks
consistency and is grossly disingenuous. Such practice is highly unusual
among editors of natural science journals,” Dr. Lee complained in his
letter sent to the Council of Science Editors.
Dr. Lee said the “atypical editorial practice in this incidence has
raised the possibility that the Journal might be under pressure
to protect certain groups with special interest in maintaining HPV
assays as the triage of ambiguous Pap test results to colposcopic
biopsies even when such triage leads to unnecessary cervical biopsies,
while using ‘over use of Pap tests in young women’ as the scapegoat for
the current practice of excessive unnecessary cervical biopsies.”
Dr. Lee also said that about six years ago, the Journal published
a highly influential
article in 2003 which stated “The commercially available
Hybrid Capture II (Digene) high-risk HPV test includes all of the types
we have classified as high-risk types…”, without informing the
readers that at least three of the authors of that article received
consulting fees from, or served on the advisory board of, Digene
Corporation. The latter publication played a pivotal role in endorsing
the 2003 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines
to promote Digene HPV assays as the triage of ambiguous cytology
results, which in turn augmented the recent upsurge of excessive
unnecessary colposcopic biopsies in the United States.
Dr. Sin Hang Lee is a full-time salaried hospital pathologist. He is
also the president of HiFi
DNA Tech, a company specializing in transferring the Sanger
DNA sequencing technology to clinical laboratories to increase the
specificity of HPV detection and genotyping.
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