Misinformed: The Online Rise and Real-Life Risk of Medical Misinformation

Whether you find it on social media, via search engine, or on a popular news website, it often seems like medical misinformation is everywhere, including in the cancer space.

Maybe it's the claim that sugar causes cancer to spread faster. Maybe it's someone saying that people with dark skin don't get skin cancer. Or maybe it's the conspiracy theory that drug companies and government agencies are withholding the cure for cancer so they can continue to profit from expensive oncology care.

These are just a few examples of purported cancer facts you might encounter online—and none of them are true.

From misinterpreted oncology research to race-related stigmas and myths, the spread of cancer-related misinformation runs rampant, taking an increasing toll on global health and often hampering our efforts at early detection and prevention. In one 2022 study, researchers found harmful misinformation in approximately 32.5 percent of the cancer-related English-language publications they analyzed.

"Unfortunately, what we're frequently seeing in online networks is that the worst-quality information actually receives more engagement than the high-quality information," says one of the study's lead authors, Dr. Stacy Loeb, a Conquer Cancer recipient whose spent years researching the consequences of misinformation for patient health. "The structure of online networks can lead to much more rapid and widespread misinformation than we ever would have seen in the past."

In this episode of Your Stories, Dr. Loeb joins ASCO's Sybil Green to discuss the rise of misinformation online, its impact on the cancer landscape, and how people across the cancer community can help to turn the tide.