Information about cancer from the internet, the press, and your friends can be accurate, biased, incomplete, speculative, premature, irrelevant. Sorting out what’s helpful can be a real challenge.
- First, details matter. Different kinds of cancer behave differently and have different treatments and prognoses. Even cancers of the same general type (like lung and breast cancer) can vary widely depending on stage and subtype. It’s easy to accidentally read the wrong information and come to the wrong conclusions.
- Second, even accurate information can’t always be taken at face value – context is important. For example, very preliminary scientific studies on cancer breakthroughs in the lab are sometimes announced in the press as though the cure will arrive tomorrow – and all too often there’s only silence afterwards, because the initial results didn’t pan out or they’re still years away from being clinically useful.
Science changes its mind when presented with enough contrary evidence. This is its main strength. Always demand evidence and be skeptical of any claim that can’t be backed up with sufficient evidence.
No treatment is good for everything. If something is touted as good for anything that ails you, like they used to say about snake oil in the days of the old traveling medicine shows, then that’s probably what it is. Just about the only two things that have ever been shown to be good for almost everything is sleep and exercise.
You’re going to need help sorting through all of it. We can help you do that. Ask questions about what you’re reading or hearing, and don’t be shy about asking questions if you run across conflicting information.
