|

Mesothelioma Patient Warning: Beware of Dangerous Cancer Information Online

ByAlex Strauss

cancer informationNew research suggests that mesothelioma patients looking for cancer information online could do more harm than good if they are looking in the wrong places. 

Researchers identified 200 cancer-related articles posted on social media between 2018 and 2019. Experts from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) reviewed the articles for inaccuracies and harmful information.

Almost a third of the articles contained misinformation. Just over 30 percent contained cancer information that could be harmful to mesothelioma patients and others with cancer. 

Mesothelioma and the Search for Cancer Information

It can be devastating to receive a cancer diagnosis. For many families, a diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma is especially frightening. Mesothelioma is very rare and highly aggressive. The prognosis for mesothelioma is usually not good. 

It is natural for patients and families to turn to the Internet to find more cancer information. There are excellent sources of reliable mesothelioma news and information online. But, as the new study shows, there is also dangerous information. 

Researchers found some of the most harmful cancer information on the sites where many people spend the most time: social media. 

Why Mesothelioma Patients Should Not Get Their Facts from Social Media

The researchers focused on four popular social media sites for articles: Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They identified the 50 most popular articles on each of four common cancer types: breast, prostate, colorectal and lung. 

Two panel members from NCCN reviewed the articles. Sixty-five articles contained wrong or misleading information. In many cases, these articles either misused data, or failed to contain supporting data. 

Nearly 77 percent of the inaccurate articles contained cancer information that could be harmful to patients. Unfortunately, these were the articles that got the most clicks, shares, reads, and likes. 

“The median number of engagements for articles with harmful information was statistically significantly greater than safe articles,” writes lead author Skyler Johnson, MD, in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 

Safe Places to Learn More About Mesothelioma

The first and best place to turn for cancer information is your own healthcare provider. Your oncologist understands your unique situation and can provide the most accurate and relevant information for your mesothelioma case. 

But there are also reliable places on the Internet to learn more about mesothelioma. Surviving Mesothelioma is one of those places. All articles on this site are based on peer-reviewed research published in reputable medical journals. Surviving Mesothelioma articles always provide the source of the data. Beware of any article that does not offer clear references to its sources. 

Some other trustworthy websites for mesothelioma patients and families:

Source:

Johnson, S, et al, “Cancer Misinformation and Harmful Information on Facebook and Other Social Media: A Brief Report”, July 22, 2021, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, https://academic.oup.com/jnci/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jnci/djab141/6323231

Similar Posts

Ape Virus Shrinks Mesothelioma Tumors in Lab
|

Ape Virus Shrinks Mesothelioma Tumors in Lab

ByAlex Strauss

A virus that causes leukemia in gibbon apes may have the power to help fight malignant mesothelioma in people. Gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) has been tested for years as a viral vector, a carrier of therapeutic genetic information, in the treatment of various human illnesses, including cancer. A new study in Japan compared GALV with a leukemia virus derived from mice to see which carrier communicated most efficiently with mesothelioma cells. While both types of viruses replicated in most of the mesothelioma cell lines tested, the mouse-derived virus was not effective in a mesothelioma cell line called ACC-MESO-1. In this cell line, only the GALV spread efficiently both in culture and in mice that had been given human mesothelioma…

Micro-RNAs May Offer New Way to Fight Mesothelioma
| |

Micro-RNAs May Offer New Way to Fight Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Scientists at one of the world’s top mesothelioma research centers, the Asbestos Diseases Research institute in Sydney, Australia, say that restoring the expression of certain micro RNAs in the cells of mesothelioma patients may offer a new way to fight the disease. A microRNA is a small RNA molecule which is involved in the regulation of gene expression. According to a new report in the Annals of Oncology, the Australian scientists found reduced expression of the micro RNA-15 family (miR-15/16) in the cells of mice with mesothelioma. “When malignant pleural mesothelioma cell lines were compared with the normal mesothelial cell line MeT-5A, the downregulation of miR-15/16 was 2- to 10-fold,” they report. This finding is consistent with previous cancer research…

Treatment Uses Herpes Virus to Shrink Mesothelioma Tumors
| |

Treatment Uses Herpes Virus to Shrink Mesothelioma Tumors

ByAlex Strauss

Researchers at a hospital in Sheffield, England are testing a potential new mesothelioma treatment based on the same virus that causes herpes. The small-scale trial is the first in the world to test the modified herpes simplex virus, HSV1716, in human mesothelioma patients. HSV1716 has been genetically engineered to infect and kill cancer cells without harming healthy cells. In laboratory studies on mesothelioma and some other cancers, it has been shown to be effective at shrinking tumors while causing limited toxicity. Just as significantly, HSV1716 increased survival rates among mice with various human cancers. The Phase I/II trial at Sheffield Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre is the next stage in development of HSV1716 as a viable mesothelioma treatment. The goal of…

New Mesothelioma Drug Kills Cancer Stem Cells
| |

New Mesothelioma Drug Kills Cancer Stem Cells

ByAlex Strauss

Citing “significant enthusiasm within the mesothelioma community”, the manufacturers of a promising new mesothelioma drug say they have begun a major test of the drug in patients. Massachusetts-based Verastem, Inc. focuses on drugs that fight cancer by attacking the stem cells that give rise to them. Earlier this summer, the FDA granted orphan drug status to their stem cell inhibitor, defactinib, for the treatment of mesothelioma. The designation, which is reserved for drugs that fight the rarest of diseases, helps pave the way for testing and faster approval, depending on the results of clinical trials. “Development of a drug that preferentially kills cancer stem cells is a promising approach, as many standard-of-care treatments have been shown to either have no…

Mesothelioma Study Finds New Treatment Target
| |

Mesothelioma Study Finds New Treatment Target

ByAlex Strauss

Immunotherapy, which involves reprogramming T-cells to find and attack cancer cells, is one of the fastest-growing areas of cancer research. One of the biggest challenges of immunotherapy is how to harness the power of T-cells against cancer without also turning them against healthy cells. A new study conducted in Switzerland and published in the Journal of Translational Medicine addressed the problem by reprogramming T-cells to recognize and attack mesothelioma cells that express a specific protein. Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) is expressed on the surface of tumor-associated fibroblast cells which are found in the connective tissue of mesothelioma tumors. FAP is also found in mesothelioma cells and may play a role in the start of cancer, as well as the growth…

Could Statin Drugs Help Fight Mesothelioma?
| |

Could Statin Drugs Help Fight Mesothelioma?

ByAlex Strauss

A new study suggests that some of the most popular drugs used to treat high cholesterol may also help combat deadly malignant mesothelioma. That finding comes from Japanese research, published recently in the medical journal, Cancer Letters. The study found a “synergistic effect” in mesothelioma cells between two statin drugs, atorvastatin (Lipitor) and simvastatin (Zocor) and gamma tocotrienol (y-T3), a form of Vitamin E. “Statin+y-T3 combinations induced greater cell growth inhibition more than each single treatment,” write the authors in the summary of their findings. The combination of statin drugs and gamma-tocotrienol appears to work by inhibiting an important metabolic pathway inside the mesothelioma cells, making it impossible for them to synthesize or utilize certain critical molecules. When the researchers…