What to make of this? Sloppy science,

I'd love to read the WSJ article. Researchers' failure to verify the identity of the cell lines they're using has been a problem in some fields of study.  It's actually an area I've been following.

However, the WSJ article is subscription-only and I'm not interested in paying a fee fee to read it.

otter

Note added in edit:  Try this link instead. I found it with a Google search. It doesn't seem to require a subscription:   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204571404577257513760102538.html

[Another edit:  Sorry, that link doesn't work now. It did when I first found it but now it leads to the same teaser as the O.P.'s links.  Anyway, I did read the article, so I'm commenting below.]

The problem of contaminated cell lines really is important, and it does affect the validity of some of the lab-based ("in vitro") studies on cancer biology.  But, there are plenty of intermediate steps that will test and re-test the original findings from those cell culture experiments.  The first validation testing will check to see if the original results can be repeated in other labs, under slightly different conditions.  Next, the treatments described in the cell-culture experiments will typically be tested in animals.  Then, those treatments will be studied in clinical trials in humans, to see if they're safe and if they really work.  Finally, if all else goes well, the treatments will be evaluated and possibly approved by the FDA.  Only then will they be made available for widespread use in patients.

So, I agree that it's a tragic waste of research funding when mistakes like those described in the WSJ article are made.  As is apparent from the article, HeLa cells (the cervical cancer line) are widely used in research labs and it's very easy to spread them accidentally.  They grow like weeds, and will overtake other, more finicky cells in a culture dish.  They also can spread by aerosol -- it doesn't take a lab accident or carelessness with pipets or labeling.

However, in reference to the O.P.'s question, I don't think we need to fear that the FDA-approved treatments we are receiving are invalid because a cell line used in some initial in vitro studies done 10 or 20 years ago might have been contaminated.

This is crazy--there has been so much money goin to bc research in the last 10 yrs, but I wonder how much of the dollar actualy oes for the research,  Every organization has a different amount so i wonder how much actually gets there.