A Porsche for Patient Accrual

Abstract

A $1,000 lottery ticket for a Porsche Boxster automobile was offered to the investigator who accrued the most patients to a Southwest Oncology Group prostate cancer protocol. This was done with the admirable intention of increasing patient accrual and improving the outlook for men with high risk prostate cancer. However, the offer of this prize also makes the statement that it is permissible to reward a doctor with an expensive automobile for putting patients on an oncology research protocol. Awarding an expensive prize for patient accrual risks eroding public confidence by creating the perception that clinical investigators, swayed by the allure of an expensive automobile, were motivated by material self-interest rather than the welfare of their patients and the advancement of medical science. I suspect that if the practice of expensive rewards for patient accrual became widespread the cumulative damage would ultimately outweigh the benefits.

Keywords:

• Ethics
• Conflict of Interest
• Prostatic Neoplasms

Notes

*Kelley Blue Book retail value $43,365.

^†The accrual rate for the months of May, June, July, and August during the contest time period was said to be higher than historic registrations.

*The promoters of the contest must have thought the prospect of winning the lottery ticket and the Porsche would influence clinical investigators; that was the apparent reason for the contest. Whether patients would consider that influence good or bad would be a function of their imaginations.

^†A convincing case exists for including the contest in the consent form.