It’s not often that critics accuse newspapers of being too upbeat, but that’s the case with a new study that finds press coverage is too upbeat when it comes to cancer. A report in the journal the Archives of Internal Medicine finds newspaper and magazine coverage of cancer is more likely to focus on aggressive treatment and survival rather than death, treatment failure, or adverse events. Almost none of the coverage addresses end-of-life palliative or hospice care, the study finds.

 

An estimated one in two men and one in three women will develop cancer during their lifetimes and more than 500,000 Americans are expected to die of cancer or related complications this year.  

 

Jessica Fishman and her colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed cancer news reporting between 2005 and 2007 in eight large U.S. newspapers and five national magazines. Of 2,228 cancer-related articles that appeared, a random sample of 436 was selected (312 from newspapers and 124 from magazines).

 

The articles were most likely to focus on breast cancer (35.1 percent) or prostate cancer (14.9 percent), and 87 (20 percent) discussed cancer in general. A total of 140 (32.1 percent) focused on individuals surviving or being cured of cancer, whereas 33 (7.6 percent) focused on one or more patients who were dying or had died of cancer. Ten articles (2.3 percent) focused on both survival and death.

 

“It is surprising that few articles discuss death and dying considering that half of all patients diagnosed as having cancer will not survive,” the authors write. “The findings are also surprising given that scientists, media critics and the lay public repeatedly criticize the news for focusing on death.”

 

In addition, few articles (57, or 13.1 percent) reported that aggressive cancer treatments can fail to extend life or cure the disease, or that some cancers are incurable. Less than one-third of the articles (131, or 30 percent) mentioned adverse events associated with cancer treatments, such as nausea, pain or hair loss.

 

Most articles (249, or 57.1 percent) discussed aggressive treatments exclusively, but almost none (two, or 0.5 percent) discussed end-of-life care only and only 11 (2.5 percent) discussed both. "For many patients with cancer, it is important to know about palliative and hospice care because this information can help them make decisions that realistically reflect their prognosis and the risks and potential benefits of treatment," the authors write.

 

After adjusting for article length, there were no differences between magazine and newspaper articles in regards to any of these factors, the authors say.

 

The authors say there is no right quantifiable answer as to how much attention newspapers and magazines should give to issues of end-of-life care and death and dying, but they say the same educational goals that ideally drive news coverage of cancer treatment and survival should also compel news organizations to address these topics.

 

“The media routinely report about aggressive treatment and survival presumably because cancer news coverage is relevant to a large portion of the population,” the authors write, “and, for the same reason, similar attention should be devoted to the alternatives.”