The medical records of almost 180,000 British lung cancer patients have been handed over to a US firm working for one of the world’s biggest tobacco companies.
Public Health England handed over anonymised NHS records covering every single lung tumour diagnosed between 2009 and 2013 – some 179,040 patients – to William E. Wecker Associates without the consent of patients or their families.
The company have worked for Philip Morris International, who own Marlboro, for nearly 30 years.
An investigation by the Daily Telegraph revealed that the data was handed over by PHE in July 2016.
The medical records of almost 180,000 British lung cancer patients have been handed over by Public Health England to a US firm who have worked for Philip Morris International, who own Marlboro, for nearly 30 years
Wecker Associates requested the data to examine the role regulation should play and the relationship between tobacco use and cancer.
The firm testified on behalf of Philip Morris International during the 2006 United States v Philip Morris case, in which several tobacco companies were held liable for breaking the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.
The case found that the firms had deceived the public about nicotine addiction and the negative health effects of smoking tobacco.
PHE told the Telegraph that it was not aware of the link between Philip Morris International and Wecker Associates.
The anonymised records were handed over without the consent of patients or their families. Wecker Associates requested the data to examine role regulation should play and the relationship between tobacco use and cancer
Privacy campaigner medConfidential spokesperson Sam Smith said: ‘This is a system that relies on public trust; a system so flawed that it’s not yet clear if any rules were broken.
‘It’s a scandal that “medical purposes” has been twisted, and officially approved, to include a firm working for big tobacco.’
Patients cannot currently block the use of their medical records in this case because the body is not covered by NHS consent rules, which usually mean they can refuse to let their data be used.
Dr Jem Rashbass, National Director for Disease Registration and Cancer Analysis at PHE said: ‘We released this data under our legal duty to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. Patient confidentiality is of upmost importance and we’ve ensured that no sensitive or identifying patient information has been released.
‘Any organisation or person can submit an FOI request and is legally entitled to a response, provided there is no applicable exemption.’