Chief medical officer at world's top cancer center resigns

Dr Josep Baselga, the chief medical officer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, resigned on Thursday over undisclosed relationships with pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

In his letter of resignation, Dr Baselga says he hears his continued role leading clinical care and research at one of the world's leading cancer centers would become "too much of a distraction to the hospital and its remarkable team of physicians, researchers and staff".

"I take full responsibility for failing to make appropriate disclosures in scientific and medical journals and at professional meetings," he said in the letter, adding: "I have already updated disclosures in medical journals and will continue to do so until the record is complete."

The revelations about Dr Baselga were reported by 'The New York Times' and 'ProPublica' last week.

Dr Baselga was awarded Catalonia's International Award in 2016 for his "revolutionary work, especially in oncology research, that has contributed significantly to the advance of world's biomedicine."