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A group of researchers is upping the ante in an ongoing battle to retract a study that linked testosterone with cardiovascular risks.

The Androgen Study Group sent a letter to Edward Shortliffe, MD, PhD, chair of the Journal Oversight Committee at the Journal of the American Medical Association, charging that the journal "violated accepted standards of medical journal ethics and editorial integrity" by not pulling a November study by Vigen et al. following corrections and other problems with the data.

Lead author of the letter Abraham Morgentaler, MD, a urologist in private practice in Boston and a professor of urology at Harvard, chronicled 13 "troubling events" that raise "serious ethical and editorial concerns."

The Vigen study found an increased risk of cardiovascular risks in men who got prescriptions for testosterone -- a finding that contradicts "decades of research," Morgentaler and co-authors wrote.

"JAMA has enormous responsibility here," the letter states. "It has created unfounded concerns among millions of men treated appropriately for testosterone deficiency, caused patients to question the care provided by their physicians, and prompted many men to discontinue treatment even among those who had clearly benefited."

The group initially called for a retraction in March, but JAMA has not taken any action. At that time, corresponding author of the Vigen study, Michael Ho, MD, PhD, of the Colorado VA, told MedPage Today that he and his colleagues "stand firmly by the results of our study."