Reliable Breast Cancer Guidance Online
As a medical reporter, I'm keenly aware that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Just last month, in fact, I misdiagnosed my husband's athlete's foot as a raging bacterial infection. While I usually rely on expert interviews for my ad hoc practice of medicine, most people nowadays turn to health websites. Research shows that nearly half of all breast cancer patients, for example, depend on the Internet to help guide their treatment decisions: Mammography or lumpectomy? Which chemotherapy drug to prevent recurrence? How much radiation?
Sites offering guidance on breast cancer are accurate about 95 percent of the time, according to a study published online today in the journal Cancer. But it's hard to tell which ones contain inaccurate information. One indicator: Those focused on alternative or complementary health remedies were more than 15 times as likely to contain gross errors. Study leader Elmer Bernstam of the University of Texas Health Science Center reads me some examples from two alternative-medicine sites:
- But the truth is, if you have the chemo you will die.
- One of the leading causes of breast cancer is antiperspirants and deodorants.
"Do you want more? I have more," he says. I ask him to instead name some sites breast cancer patients can really rely upon. He named these three:
"What about websites from the leading cancer centers?" I ask him, noting that he failed to mention M.D. Anderson's website, where his study coauthor and wife, Funda Meric-Bernstam, is affiliated. He tells me that these institutions have a hard time keeping their websites updated, so the information may be several months or years behind the state-of-the-art treatment being administered there. Meric-Bernstam agrees. "Breast cancer care is evolving so fast," she says. "So much has changed over the past five years with regards to surgery, diagnosis, and preventative chemotherapy." A previous study she conducted found that fewer than half of breast cancer websites had been updated over the past six months and even those that were updated often didn't contain the most current information.
If you've been diagnosed with breast cancer, have you found any websites that have helped you make an informed treatment decision? Have you found any that have been misleading? Please add your comments.
Tags: breast cancer | websites
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Reader Comments
Women's Health Websites
I definitely agree. People should never make health decisions based on what they read online. At AskMyGyn.com, our website is devoted to the fill range of gynecologic health information. We aren't dedicated to breast cancer alone, but we have a great database of general gynecologic health information. People should have easy access to reliable information online, and this may help them understand their condition. We also give people the opportunity to ask a board certified physician questions if they need extra help with a particular issue. Especially important is the point you make about health sites that are focused on alternative medicine. They can not only be misleading, they can be downright dangerous.
Helpful Breast Cancer Information
www.askmygyn.com
I came accross this site that has very good-easy to navigate- information. All the information is written by American trained, and board certified obgyn's. It has a lot of information on breast changes and breast pains and their relation to possible cancer. Definitly worth checking out. Hope this is helpful. the direct link for their information on breast cancer etc. is: http://askmygyn.com/GYN-medical-health-answers-all.php?mainCatID=17&subCat=16&FAQ_GROUP_ID=92
Helpful Information On Breast Cancer
i think i left out my email adress a minute ago when i gave the information. sending this to include my email. thanks again...great article. please use what i wrote in my submission a minute ago.
Find reliable and relevant breast cancer info
Great insight. As a breast cancer survivor, I was overwhelmed with "data" but not enough "information" relevant to me. So that's why I created a website that provides a HOME PAGE DIRECTORY of the leading cancer websites, including those you mentioned, created and organized by a medical oncology librarian. Leave the content updates to the experts and provide easy to use tools to use them. Check out www.athenapartners.org. Thank you for bringing this issue to light.
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Breast Cancer Web Sites
At finding Dulcinea, we've created a Web Guide to Breast Cancer that is a narrated guide to approximately 50 of the best sites for learning about causes, diagnoses, treatment and coping with breast cancer. The was written by an RN and rigorously reviewed by three editors. As we say in our Health Guide, no one should make decisions based only on information found on the Internet, particularly on a matter relating to cancer; but such information can be quite helpful in enabling you to have a more informed conversation with your doctor and reinforce the doctor's advice.
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides/Health/Cancer/Breast-Cancer.html?xa=1
Feb 11, 2008 17:51:44 PM [permalink] [report comment]