Direct-to-consumer advertising in oncology.
Shortly before his death in 1995, Kenneth B. Schwartz, a cancer patient at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), founded The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center at MGH. The Schwartz Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing compassionate health care delivery, which provides hope to patients and support to caregivers while encouraging the healing process. The center sponsors the Schwartz Center Rounds, a monthly multidisciplinary forum in which caregivers reflect on important psychosocial issues faced by patients, their families, and their caregivers, and gain insight and support from fellow staff members. Increasingly, cancer patients are subjected to advertisements related to oncologic therapies and other cancer-related products in the popular media. Such direct-to-consumer advertising is controversial: while it may inform, educate, and perhaps even empower patients, it also has the ability to misinform patients, and strain their relationships with oncology providers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires that direct-to-consumer advertising provide a balanced presentation of a product's benefits, risks, and side effects, but this can be difficult to achieve. Through a discussion of this topic by an oncology fellow, ethicist, cancer survivor, and senior oncologist, the role of direct-to-consumer advertising and its often subtle effects on clinical practice in oncology are explored. Although sparse, the medical literature on this increasingly prevalent type of medical communication is also reviewed.
Abel
Gregory A
GA
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114-2617, USA.
Penson
Richard T
RT
Joffe
Steven
S
Schapira
Lidia
L
Chabner
Bruce A
BA
Lynch
Thomas J
TJ
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000329:Advertising / Q000639:trends*; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001900:Boston; D003142:Communication; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000941:ethics*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010358:Patient Participation; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics; D014481:United States; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents