For example, a panel session [A-4] previewed the 2011 revision of the National Cancer Institute Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources, examining (a) appropriate handling of diagnostic discrepancies and incidental findings discovered during pathology review of biospecimens; (b) return of results to individual research subjects in biospecimen research; and (c) disclosure of aggregate research findings. The return of diagnostic discrepancies and incidental findings with potential clinical significance most obviously blur the research-treatment boundary, in the same way that this boundary is blurred in the context of other research. Imaging studies, or for that matter screening or diagnostic studies in any clinical trial, may uncover information of potential clinical importance that would not otherwise have been found. The return of incidental findings in any research study thus raises questions about the nature and scope of investigators’ duties of nonmaleficence and beneficence to research subjects — questions that move research toward treatment by virtue of the clinical significance of the findings at issue.
