Charity Commission censures British cancer charities

Abstract

The Charity Commission, the government organisation that oversees all British charities, last week censured the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) and the Cancer Research Campaign (CRC) for inadequacies in their mechanisms for supervising and evaluating research. The commission plans to consult the medical reseach community and draw up guidance on good practice for the funding of medical research by charities. The commission began its investigation into the two charities, which between them have an annual income of pounds sterling 100m ($150m), after the publication of research that they had funded into the effectiveness of the complementary treatments offered by the Bristol Cancer Help Centre. The research, which was published in the Lancet in September 1990, showed that patients with breast cancer who attended the centre did worse than control patients who did not. The patients had not been randomised, and Sir …