The external organization set to lead the investigation of Duke cancer researcher Anil Potti’s allegedly flawed findings is nearly determined.
Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor for health affairs and president and chief executive officer for the Duke University Health System, said the University is almost certain about which organization will conduct the external review of Potti’s research.
According to The Cancer Letter, National Cancer Institute Director Harold Varmus has contacted the Institute of Medicine to request that the organization lead the review of Potti’s findings.
The external organization set to lead the investigation of Duke cancer researcher Anil Potti’s allegedly flawed findings is nearly determined.
Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor for health affairs and president and chief executive officer for the Duke University Health System, said the University is almost certain about which organization will conduct the external review of Potti’s research.
According to The Cancer Letter, National Cancer Institute Director Harold Varmus has contacted the Institute of Medicine to request that the organization lead the review of Potti’s findings. Dzau declined to comment on whether IOM was in fact the organization that Duke has been in talks with, citing an confidentiality agreement with the organization’s president.
“It could negatively impact the decision making [with respect to Potti’s work] if we don’t keep the identity [of the organization] confidential,” Dzau said. “We are in active discussion, if not the final stages, of arranging for a totally neutral, objective [and] distinguished panel of reviews conducted by a most distinguished organization.”
The University completed its own review of the controversial cancer research—used to tailor chemotherapy with individual patients—in January after charges by biostatisticians Keith Baggerly and Kevin Coombes of MD Anderson Cancer Center alleged that Potti’s work contained errors. At the time, Duke stood behind the research, noting that it was “viable and likely to succeed.”
But recent allegations that Potti falsified his resume and qualifications on resumes for federal funding brought Potti’s research to the forefront. Potti is accused of posing as a Rhodes Scholar, falsely claiming to be a recipient of numerous awards and claiming work under a mentor who told The Cancer Letter he did not know Potti at the time.
For the second investigation, Dzau noted that the Duke community, as a whole, believes it is the best decision to use an outside group to conduct a review of Potti’s scientific work and ethics.
“I’m working to get an external organization... [with] high credibility to take over and do all of it without any Duke involvement,” Dzau said. “In other words, we’ll provide everything they need to make it transparent, and we will not be engaged in that review in order for the scientific body to be able to do it in an open and transparent and objective fashion.”
The University is currently conducting an internal investigation geared to assess the validity of Potti’s credentials but has not yet released the results of whether Potti is guilty of internal, academic misconduct.
The investigation is being led by Provost Peter Lange and a panel of faculty, the members of which have not been released. The review of Potti’s qualifications has now been ongoing for a number of weeks, although in late July Lange said he expected the investigation to end “promptly.” Lange could not be reached for comment on the progress of the internal review.
Taylor Doherty contributed reporting.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.