Nearly 180,000 NHS lung cancer patients' data handed to firm linked to tobacco giant

The data of 180,000 UK lung cancer patients has been handed to a firm working for a US tobacco giant, it has emerged.

Public Health England released 179,040 anonymised NHS records covering every lung tumour diagnosed between 2009 and 2013 to William E Wecker Associates, a firm that works for Philip Morris International.

According to the Daily Telegraph, which revealed the disclosure in an investigation, it is now feared that tobacco firms could use the information in legal cases to downplay the health risks of smoking.

Consulting firm Wecker has been working for the tobacco company, which owns Marlboro, for more than 30 years.

It testified on behalf of the giant in the 2006 United States v Philip Morris case, in which several firms were held liable for deceiving the US public about the dangers of tobacco.

PHE said it performed due diligence checks to ensure patients could not be identified from the data and said it followed its legal obligations when it handed it over.

Wecker told PHE the data, requested under FOI laws, was for an international study to help identify factors that reduce the risk of cancerous tumours, which would in turn improve public health.

Wecker also said it wanted to examine historical trends in some subtypes of lung cancer in Australia, Ireland, the UK and the US, and that the study would extend an analysis of relationships between tobacco use and cancer reported in the 2014 Surgeon General report.

Dr Jem Rashbass, National Director for Disease Registration and Cancer Analysis for 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 not 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.”