According to The New York Times of May 29, 2001, "The Cancer Letter, a weekly, gave early voice to the patient activist movement, helped force out an unpopular Clinton administration health official, exposed a society doctor whose cancer treatments may have cost lives and recently revealed — much to the embarrassment of American Cancer Society officials — that they had unwittingly hired two public relations firms with ties to the tobacco industry.
Scientific journals such as Nature and Science have reported on investigations carried out by staff of The Cancer Letter.
[Science News, May 24, 2013] [11][12] The Cancer Letter has received numerous awards for reporting on issues such as mammography screening, dietary supplements, industry conflicts of interest including the ImClone scandal, and medical device hazards.
Reports on findings of the investigational monoclonal antibody Erbitux began appearing in The Cancer Letter in November 2001.
Though not covered by The Cancer Letter, the ImClone scandal included the episode of insider stock trading that resulted in a 5-month prison term for media celebrity Martha Stewart.
[13] Reporting by The Cancer Letter was key in bringing the spotlight to problems within a Duke University cancer research group producing problematic research results, as reported by the CBS investigative journalist show 60 Minutes on March 5, 2012: "Many trusted [Dr. Anil Potti] because Dr. Potti's work had been vindicated.
But there was just one more thing - discovered, not by a scientist, but by Paul Goldberg, the editor of a small independent newsletter called 'The Cancer Letter.'