Posted by Michael Wonder on 13 Sep 2016
Cancer drug websites more likely to offer data on benefits than harms
12 September 2016 - Researchers from the US FDA Office of Prescription Drug Promotion and RTI say that websites for cancer medicines are ten times more likely to include quantitative information about all the benefits of a medicine versus all its risks/harms.
The researchers examined 65 websites for currently available branded medicines used to treat patients with cancer (57 oncology treatments and eight drugs that treat related side effects) that contained information for both patients and health care providers.
The objective of the study was "to determine whether and how quantitative information about drug benefits and risks is presented to consumers and health care providers on cancer-related prescription drug websites".
