Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have reported that “news reports about cancer frequently discuss aggressive treatment and survival but rarely discuss treatment failure, adverse events, end-of-life, or death.” The details of this study were published early online in the Archives of Internal Medicine on March 16, 2010.[1]

Cancer is a relatively popular subject in the news media. The authors of this study point out that the news median may not reflect the fact that “approximately half of all U.S. patients with cancer die of their illness or of related complications.”

These researchers evaluated 436 newspaper or magazine articles about cancer. They made the following observations:

• 32% of these reviewed articles focused on survival and 7.8% focused on death and dying.
• Only 13% of articles reported that “aggressive cancer treatments can fail.”
• 30% of articles reported that “aggressive treatments can result in adverse events.”
• 57% of articles discussed aggressive treatments, while only 0.5% discussed end-of-life palliative care or hospice.
• 2.5% of articles discussed aggressive treatment and end-of-life care.

Comments: These authors suggest: “These portrayals of cancer care in the news media may give patients an inappropriately optimistic view of cancer treatment, outcomes, and prognosis.”

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