Ethics - A Case Study from Cancer Research

Ethics: Case Study

Today let’s discuss the case of Maria Cristina Miron Elqutub at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Elqutub was a research assistant at the University of Texas MD ACC and was working on a cancer genetics study involving human blood samples. Apparently, during the study, Elqutub falsified dates as well as provided her own blood for 98 samples that were used in the study.

The falsification was found out when researchers used her blood samples in other research and realized something was wrong. Fortunately, no patients were directly affected by the conduct of Elqutub. However, her samples and resulting conclusions were used in two published studies about genetic variants modifying the risk of developing salivary gland carcinomas. One of these studies has been retracted and it is likely the second one will be as well.

Elqutub admitted to the misconduct and as apart of the settlement agreed to have her research supervised for 3 years as well as a few other conditions relating to research and grants. However, it seems to be the cases that Elqutub is no longer working in research and is currently a middle school nurse.

My Reflection:

I find this story very interesting and a number of questions come to mind upon finishing the story. For example: Why in the world would you use your own blood in a cancer research study? Was Elqutub trying to cover something up or was she just being lazy? Was she the one who was supposed to collect the samples from the patients and were the samples lost or never taken? If lost or never taken, why couldn’t the samples be acquired?

According to the case study and some further research into the story, it appears that Elqutub never answered these questions or gave any reason at all for her research misconduct. I just found this story very interesting because the misconduct makes no sense to me. I glanced at a few other stories and I found that the reason for misconduct was often to keep up a façade, cover a mistake, make money, or for some other selfish reasons. Although these of course are no excuse, I at least understand them on a basic level. But why use your own blood and try to pass it off as 98 patient samples?

Whatever the reasons were, it is sad because thousands of people are diagnosed with Salivary Gland Carcinomas every year in the United States and two studies that could have added to research and cure were retracted because of this misconduct. All of that time and money was wasted, and cancer patients will ultimately be the ones who suffer from this case.