ASCO Policy for Relationships with Companies and How European Associations Will Benefit

Over the last ten years, European conferences have exploded with increased attendance while US conferences have shriveled. One potential reason could be the restrictions that US associations are placing on abstract presenters to prevent potential conflicts of interest. There is one association that may be one to watch if we see that trend continue.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) released its “Policy for Relationships With Companies“. The policy puts in place a ban on submitting abstracts to their meeting from authors of journal articles who have given a promotional talk in the last two years for the supporting company, were employed by that company, or have ownership or significant investment interest.

The policy describes ASCO’s comprehensive approach to addressing financial relationships held by ASCO, its key leaders and volunteers, and anyone who seeks to publish or present in an ASCO forum. However, as we will illustrate, the new policy can be overly restrictive, which may diminish the policy’s usefulness.

Some highlighted parts of the policy:

DISCLOSURE OF FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

A. Institutional Relationships

The ASCO and Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) publicly disclose external support of programmatic activities, including charitable contributions, educational grants, and sponsorships. In addition, the ASCO and CCF publicly disclose financial relationships with Companies held by their directors and officers and by the editors of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) and the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP).

B. Individual Relationships

Many volunteers and other individuals take part in the planning, authorship, peer review, or presentation of programs or content through ASCO channels. ASCO considers it important to understand individuals’ financial relationships with Companies and to make relevant information available to colleagues, learners, readers, and other affected parties. This Policy requires disclosure of certain financial and other relationships held by all individuals who:

1. are ASCO directors, officers, or senior staff;

2. serve on ASCO committees, task forces, clinical practice guideline panels, and the like, as spokespersons, or in any other volunteer activity or official capacity for ASCO;

3. submit abstracts or make presentations in ASCO educational or scientific programs;

4. submit manuscripts to JCO, JOP, and other ASCO publications;

5. have other roles for which disclosure is required by ASCO; or

6. are immediate family members of individuals who hold relationships 1 through 5 described here.

C. Information to Be Disclosed

Disclosure under this Policy generally includes but may not be limited to the following financial relationships: compensation received for employment, leadership positions, consulting activities, speaking engagements, and expert testimony; as well as ownership interests, research funding (to the individual or the institution), and licensing fees and royalties associated with intellectual property interests.

RESTRICTIONS ON CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS

A. Original Research in ASCO Educational or Scientific Programs

Abstracts and articles concerning original research are not eligible for inclusion in an ASCO educational or scientific program if the first, last, or corresponding author has:

Participated in a speakers’ bureau (on any subject) on behalf of the Company sponsor of that original research at any time during the 2 years before submission of the abstract;

 Held an employment relationship with the Company sponsorof that original research at any time during the 2 years before submission of the abstract; or

 Held a significant ownership interest in the Company sponsor of that original research at any time during the 2 years before submission of the abstract.

B. Original Research in ASCO Journals

Manuscripts (including articles and abstracts) concerning original research are not eligible for publication in JCO or JOP if the first, last, or corresponding author has:

Participated in a speakers’ bureau (on any subject) on behalf of the Company sponsor of that research at any time during the 2 years before submission of the manuscript;

Held an employment relationship with the Company sponsor of that research at any time during the 2 years before submission of the manuscript; or

Held a significant ownership interest in the Company sponsor of that research at any time during the 2 years before submission of the manuscript.

The policy was released on April 22, 2013 and effective on that date. To our knowledge no prior notification was sent to ASCO members.

DISCUSSION

This policy eliminates all investors, anyone who has participated in a speaker’s bureau, or any company employee(s) from submitting original research at ASCO. This will eliminate a significant number of quality abstracts based. These limits are burdensome and discriminate against many well qualified people who would otherwise be eager to submit their research to ASCO.

The draconian rules will only hurt the transfer of scientific knowledge and their benefits for the public health. Researchers want to publish, just like any other scientist, and all researchers have biases that can impact their methods. This policy implies that somehow company supported research and scientists are not quite as honest as their academic counterparts.

Fortunately there are many additional outlets for presenting and publications at the disposal of oncology researchers. In the future many of these scientists will submit their abstracts and posters elsewhere.

One can expect a significant drop in the quality of abstracts and the number of attendees at ASCO conferences. We are now in a global scientific economy–European and smaller societies are much more open to company science. American associations who have adopted similar policies have seen 30 – 40% reductions in attendance for US meetings where their European counterparts have exploded with corresponding increases in attendance.

The concern for US patients is that science presented and published in Europe can take years before US physicians know about their results. For cancer patients this is a real concern in that they may miss out on breakthroughs in treatment simply because their oncologist is “unaware” of the science.

We will see if in ten years one reminisces, “I remember ASCO when….