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Cancer-Drug Ads Hard to Read

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

Cancer-drug ads that ran in U.S. patient-focused cancer magazines present the drugs' benefits differently than their side effects or risks, a study finds.

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston reviewed all advertisements for oncology drugs that appeared in three cancer-patient-focused magazines, CURE, Coping with Cancer and MAMM, in 2005. They analyzed the advertisement copy for readability and assessed the type size and the placement of the benefits and side effects/risk information among other factors.

Direct-to-consumer advertising of oncology medications typically focuses on the drugs' benefits, as would be expected, but it does so in a manner that might lead some cancer patients to not appreciate equally the drugs' potential side effects and risks, says study first author Dr. Gregory Abel. We found that appeals to medication safety are infrequent in oncology print direct-to-consumer advertisements, while appeals to medication effectiveness are ubiquitous and often made through the presentation of clinical trial data -- such appeals to the scientific efficacy of cancer-related medicines, while suitable in the setting of clinical encounters, may not be appropriate when made directly to consumers via language that is difficult to read.

The findings were presented the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Atlanta Tuesday.

Source: United Press International

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