A charity funded almost entirely by Miami-based cigarette holding company Vector Group provided most of the funding for a groundbreaking lung-cancer study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, according to a report in Wednesday's New York Times.
The study, by Claudia Henschke of the Weill Cornell Medical College, said that 80 percent of lung cancer deaths could be prevented through widespread use of CT scans.
The Foundation for Lung Cancer: Early Detection, Prevention & Treatment funded the study. That charity was financed by $3.6 million in grants from Vector, which is the parent company of the maker of Liggett Select, Eve, Grand Prix, Quest and Pyramid cigarette brands.
The arrangement raises questions of proper disclosure of research fundings, as some universities have started declining such funds from tobacco makers, the Times reported.
But a Vector spokeswoman noted that the company publicly announced its donation at the time it was made, and said the firm didn't determine the study's outcome.
''The company disclosed its gift at inception in a press release, contributed $3.6 million in over a three year period, and had no control or influence over the research,'' Vector spokeswoman Carrie Bloom said.
Vector Group indirectly owns the Liggett Group, a North Carolina-based manufacturer of cigarette brands.
Vector Group also owns Vector Tobacco, which ''is focused on developing and bringing to market smoking products with science-based reductions in certain harmful compounds,'' according to the company.
Liggett was the first tobacco firm to settle smoking-related lawsuits in the 1990s. Bennett LeBow, now Vector's executive chairman, testified in court then that smoking is addictive and can lead to lung cancer, heart and respiratory disease and emphysema.
