<p>Some online articles have suggested, without evidence, that high-dose infusions of vitamin C can cure cancer. Others have promised, falsely, that baking soda can cure prostate cancer or that cannabis oil can cure breast or lung cancer. Well before ivermectin was infamously touted as an (ineffective) intervention for the coronavirus disease 2019, a podcast wrongly asserted that the antiparasitic medication offered a cancer cure.</p><p>Experts have long warned of the noxious effects of online misinformation aimed at swaying elections and public opinion. The swirl of misinformation around cancer treatment and prevention may be less well studied, but researchers have begun raising alarms about the considerable harm that can come from advice that is, in some cases, literally toxic.</p><p>Skyler Johnson, MD, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, experienced the phenomenon firsthand when his wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 while he was still in medical school. The couple encountered so many fact-free claims and false assertions online that Dr Johnson decided to study the effects of this flood of bad advice. Even after his wife was declared cancer-free, he realized that such misinformation, even from well-meaning friends and relatives, can lead to serious and avoidable harm.</p><p>Most disturbingly, he discovered, it can kill. In a highly cited study, Dr Johnson and his colleagues found that patients who relied entirely on unproven alternative cancer therapies were significantly more likely to die within 5 years than patients who used conventional treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, and surgery.<span><sup>1</sup></span> For a subset of patients with breast or colorectal cancer who used alternative medicine, the mortality risk jumped roughly 5-fold. No matter how advanced cancer treatments might be, he says, “if patients aren’t willing to take those treatments, then we’ve done no good.”</p><p>When she read Dr Johnson’s study, Briony Swire-Thompson, PhD, director of the Psychology of Misinformation Lab in the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, had an epiphany. The cognitive psychologist had previously studied general and political misinformation, but she immediately understood the unique challenge posed by cancer misinformation. “That was, I think, an aha moment where I realized this is a topic where belief really has impact in people’s lives,” she says.</p><p>Dr Swire-Thompson characterizes <i>misinformation</i> as an umbrella term for all false information and <i>disinformation</i> as a subset of false information that is spread deliberately. The high anxiety accompanying a cancer diagnosis, coupled with cognitive fatigue and the fear of side effects from chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery, she notes, can make a patient more susceptible to a huckster trying to capitalize financially. “People are wi
{"title":"Researchers confront a rising tide of cancer misinformation","authors":"Bryn Nelson PhD, William Faquin MD, PhD","doi":"10.1002/cncy.22909","DOIUrl":"10.1002/cncy.22909","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Some online articles have suggested, without evidence, that high-dose infusions of vitamin C can cure cancer. Others have promised, falsely, that baking soda can cure prostate cancer or that cannabis oil can cure breast or lung cancer. Well before ivermectin was infamously touted as an (ineffective) intervention for the coronavirus disease 2019, a podcast wrongly asserted that the antiparasitic medication offered a cancer cure.</p><p>Experts have long warned of the noxious effects of online misinformation aimed at swaying elections and public opinion. The swirl of misinformation around cancer treatment and prevention may be less well studied, but researchers have begun raising alarms about the considerable harm that can come from advice that is, in some cases, literally toxic.</p><p>Skyler Johnson, MD, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, experienced the phenomenon firsthand when his wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 while he was still in medical school. The couple encountered so many fact-free claims and false assertions online that Dr Johnson decided to study the effects of this flood of bad advice. Even after his wife was declared cancer-free, he realized that such misinformation, even from well-meaning friends and relatives, can lead to serious and avoidable harm.</p><p>Most disturbingly, he discovered, it can kill. In a highly cited study, Dr Johnson and his colleagues found that patients who relied entirely on unproven alternative cancer therapies were significantly more likely to die within 5 years than patients who used conventional treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, and surgery.<span><sup>1</sup></span> For a subset of patients with breast or colorectal cancer who used alternative medicine, the mortality risk jumped roughly 5-fold. No matter how advanced cancer treatments might be, he says, “if patients aren’t willing to take those treatments, then we’ve done no good.”</p><p>When she read Dr Johnson’s study, Briony Swire-Thompson, PhD, director of the Psychology of Misinformation Lab in the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, had an epiphany. The cognitive psychologist had previously studied general and political misinformation, but she immediately understood the unique challenge posed by cancer misinformation. “That was, I think, an aha moment where I realized this is a topic where belief really has impact in people’s lives,” she says.</p><p>Dr Swire-Thompson characterizes <i>misinformation</i> as an umbrella term for all false information and <i>disinformation</i> as a subset of false information that is spread deliberately. The high anxiety accompanying a cancer diagnosis, coupled with cognitive fatigue and the fear of side effects from chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery, she notes, can make a patient more susceptible to a huckster trying to capitalize financially. “People are wi","PeriodicalId":9410,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Cytopathology","volume":"132 10","pages":"603-604"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cncy.22909","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142342162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}