Obtaining Helpful Information From the Internet About Prognosis in Advanced Cancer

Overview

Journal J Oncol Pract

Specialty Oncology

Date 2015 Jul 19

PMID 26188047

Citations 2

Authors

Ivan Chik

Thomas J Smith

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: Prognostic awareness, or knowing that one has a life-ending disease, is associated with a better end-of-life experience, including less depression and anxiety. We sought to determine whether reliable sources on the Internet contained helpful prognostic information about advanced cancer.

Methods: We played the role of a 62-year-old person with stage IV incurable cancer and accessed four commonly used Web sites for the 10 most common causes of cancer death (American Cancer Society, ASCO, National Cancer Institute, Up To Date), as well as disease-specific Web sites.

Results: Approximately half the Web sites (26 of 50; 52%) had some notation of 5-year survival. Only four of 50 (8%) gave any average or median survival. Only 13 of 50 (26%) noted that stage IV cancer was a serious and usually life-ending illness. Nearly all had some information about hospice and palliative care.

Conclusion: Information that can help with patient prognostic awareness is not currently found on cancer-related Web sites. Oncologists should be aware that their patients will not find estimates of survival or treatment effect on the Internet. This may contribute to overoptimistic estimates of survival and subsequent aggressive end-of-life care.

Citing Articles

Communicating About Precision Oncology.

McFarland D, Blackler E, Banerjee S, Holland J JCO Precis Oncol. 2020; 1.

PMID: 32913976 PMC: 7446474. DOI: 10.1200/PO.17.00066.

Prostate Cancer on the Web-Expedient Tool for Patients' Decision-Making?.

Borgmann H, Wolm J, Vallo S, Mager R, Huber J, Breyer J J Cancer Educ. 2015; 32(1):135-140.

PMID: 26234650 DOI: 10.1007/s13187-015-0891-3.

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