August 30, 2016
I read with interest Mark Wilson's recent article, "The New England Journal of Medicine: commercial conflict of interest and revisiting the Vioxx scandal". I believe this is an important contribution that underlines the aphorism "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it." As ...
James M Brophy
September 14, 2016
I read with interest the comment by Mark Wilson, which deals with possible conflict of interest (CoI) affecting publications in academic medical journals. This comment has specifically targeted the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Drazen on the "Viox...
Prem Pais
August 08, 2014
We appreciate the article by Eric Suba, highlighting some inadequacies in trials comparing various methods of screening for cervical cancer. Our response pertains to his reference to the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) raising concerns about issues relating to informed consent. We wi...
Rajan Dewar, Vinita Parkash, Lachlan Forrow
October 16, 2014
We have followed the exchange of comments between Dr Sankaranarayanan and Dr Suba closely and with interest, but also with rising concern that this angry dialogue will eventually harm rather than benefit the goal to which both aspire (and have devoted considerable effort and time). We hope that t...
Gita Jayaram, Rajan Dewar, Ratna Raman, Swaminathan Rajendiran, Vinita Parkash
July 22, 2014
Background: Since 1998, randomised trials in India funded by the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have compared cervical cancer death rates among 224,929 women offered cervical screening to those among 138,624 women offered no screening whatsoever. To d...
Eric J Suba
July 22, 2014
Dr Eric Suba has been distorting facts and persistently disseminating biased and misleading views and statements regarding our studies over the past several years. His article in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics fails to mention the facts that seem unfavourable to his arguments, and the ethic...
Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan, Bhagwan M Nene, Surendra Shastri, Pullikotil Ekkuru Esmy, Rajamanickam Rajkumar, Richard Muwonge, Rajaraman Swaminathan, Sylla G Malvi, Shubada Kane, Sangeeta Desai, Rohini Kelkar, Sanjay Hingmire, Kasturi Jayant
July 22, 2014
During the 1970s and 1980s, reports from several countries documented substantial reductions in incidence rates of cervical cancer and death rates following the introduction of cervical screening and confirmed the role of cervical screening as an archetypal preventive health intervention; moreove...
Eric J Suba
October 01, 2013
Pramesh and colleagues have not responded to my central thesis: it was unethical to have a "no screening" control arm in the VIA trials when proven screening methods existed
Sandhya Srinivasan
October 01, 2013
The Xpert® MTB/RIF (hereafter Xpert) is a recent technology that has "demonstrated sensitive detection of tuberculosis (TB) and rifampicin resistance directly from untreated sputum in less than two hours" . Many are in favour of the widespread implementation of this technology in India. In a r...
Richard A Cash
October 01, 2013
We read with interest the recent editorial in the IJME on the ethics of standard care in screening trials for cervical cancer in India. The author takes exception to the fact that three cervical cancer screening studies in India used no screening as the control arm, in spite of evidence that ...
C S Pramesh, Surendra Shastri, Indraneel Mittra, Rajendra A Badwe
