Topeka ? Two Kansas University Medical Center professors were accused Monday of improper spending in connection with a cancer research project.

The professors used their positions as lead investigators to spend $14,700 on hormone pellets for research from a company they privately owned, according to a state audit. The pellets were implanted in laboratory mice to study the effects.

The purchases, made during the past eight years, probably violated the terms of the federal research grants, the audit said. Proceeds from the sale of the pellets were used to purchase journal subscriptions, memberships to professional organizations and office supplies for the professors’ research laboratory, the audit said.

The Legislative Division of Post Audit said it would be reporting these expenditures to the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.

Under state law, state officials and employees are prohibited from “self-dealing,” which is taking an action in an official capacity that benefits him or her privately.

In a letter to the Post Audit division, Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor and executive dean of the medical school, said KU was conducting an in-house investigation.

Atkinson vowed “at its conclusion, all necessary and appropriate actions will be taken.” She said a report will be given to lawmakers by March 1, 2008.

Auditors didn’t identify the professors in the report, and KU officials refused to do so.

“They are still employed here and we are in the middle of an investigation,” KU Medical Center spokeswoman Amy Jordan Wooden said. “We can’t comment on an ongoing personnel matter.”