If a clinical researcher with a focus on diagnosing and detecting rare cancers found out they have a rare form of blood cancer, what stops them from using their own samples for research? Would this be a conflict of interest severe enough that they would have to back out of their research?
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The gold standard in medical studies are what are known as double blind studies, which means that the researchers themselves don’t know anything about the samples they are processing. Such safeguards are necessary to maintain the integrity of the data generated by the study and ensure that no bias, conscious or unconscious, alters the outcome of the study.
I don’t really understand what you worry about.
In a study each patient sample is encoded. Is it your worry that the scientist would discard the sample “TH34.87/11” and replace it with his own blood under the same code? And what would he gain with such swap? Worst case, he got caught and fired, all study cancelled. Nobody learn anything. Second worst case, there’s one false data point in the study. What is his personal gain?
If he does it so he gets a personal diagnosis, then he doesn’t need to swap. Just takes his own blood, goes to the lab on a weekend and does some tests. It’s always excess material, he can use, and this way there’s no trace, no questions.
If he does it to get the free drug, well, he won’t. Even though it is the scientist’s blood tested, but it’s still the original “TH34.87/11” patient who gets any treatment.
Usually, if the disease is so rare, the patient data comes from several countries. If he’s unlucky, “TH34.87/11” is another sex, another demographics from another country. And he’s aware of this chance.
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