Another Voice / Health care
Gary Schwitzer: Roswell Park’s Prostate Club omits vital information
Roswell Park Cancer Institute has a reputation as one of the finest cancer care facilities in the country. But its promotion of prostate cancer screening doesn’t match that reputation. It has created a Prostate Club For Men.
On its Web site, Roswell Park fails to give the whole story about prostate cancer screening:
“When it comes to prostate cancer, early detection saves lives. In fact, around 90% of prostate cancers found at an early stage are cured. Men — and the women who love them—need to be proactive in understanding the risk factors and how to ‘aim for a cure’ through early detection.”
But American Cancer Society Chief Medical Officer Dr. Otis Brawley recently wrote:
“Prostate cancer screening has resulted in substantial overdiagnosis and in unnecessary treatment. It may have saved relatively few lives. . . . The benefits of prostate cancer screening are still open to question.”
Will members of the club be given Brawley’s evidence-based perspective? It doesn’t appear on the Web site. Instead, men are lured in by offers of prizes like hockey tickets if they commit to discuss screening. Prizes for prostates.
The Web site also includes an advocacy message from Scott Levin, WGRZTV anchor:
“It’s my job to inform the viewers of Western New York. To me, informing our viewers of the latest health news is of utmost importance. . . . Our goal is to have men get screened for prostate cancer. . . . It’s about time men learn how easy it is to get screened for prostate cancer — early detection is the key to your success!”
It’s a journalist’s job to inform completely, not with incomplete advocacy. Neither the anchor’s message nor any portion of the Web site contains one word about controversy, about uncertainty, about the harms of screening, about the importance of careful, shared decision-making to weigh the potential harms against the potential benefits.
I urge the promoters of this club, and the TV anchor, to read the entire editorial by Brawley of the American Cancer Society as it appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Excerpt: “As I sat down to write this editorial, I heard a radio commercial that brings perspective to the issue. A local celebrity was promoting prostate cancer awareness. He said, ‘Prostate cancer is 100% curable when caught early.’ He encouraged all men to get screened and announced that a van was touring the area offering screening in supermarket parking lots. This was a community service project sponsored by the radio station, the supermarket chain and a radiation oncology practice. A commercial like this plays to our fears and prejudices.”
So does much of the language on the Prostate Club For Men Web site.
Gary Schwitzer is a health journalism professor at the University of Minnesota and publisher of HealthNewsReview.org.
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