Front page news--low fat diet may reduce risk of recurring breast cancer.
For years, health news reported by the media, good and bad, has either given people false hopes or scared them silly. Only later did we discover--and almost never on the front page--that the studies were inconclusive and found to be useless or, worse, that just the opposite was the case.
The public is so fed up that they tend to disbelieve all health news--and reporters and editors scratch their heads and wonder why their credibility lingers just above used insurance salesmen.
"A low-fat diet can decrease the risk of breast cancer recurrence by more than 40% in patients with a form of the cancer that is not sensitive to levels of the hormone estrogen, researchers said Monday," was the lead in the LA Times Story. At least the reporter knew enough to note that for women who were sensitive to estrogen (which was never explained) the reduction wasn't statistically significant.
As usual, The Washington Post buried the real news after about ten paragraphs of hype. "After an average of five years, 96 women on the low-fat diet -- 9.8 percent -- had had a recurrence of cancer, compared with 181 -- 12.4 percent -- of those on a standard diet. That amounted to a 24 percent reduction in risk on the low-fat diet." Then they went on to warn that the results were preliminary.
What the reporter didn't note that any epidemiologist will tell you that a 24% reduction is probably no reduction at all. Because epidemiology is such a weak science, you need a 100% change to have any confidence at all. That's why they have to do so many studies to confirm initial findings.
Gina Kolata of The New York Times, one of the best health reporters in the country, at least put the cautions early in the story. The study's principal investigator, Dr. Chlebowski, "and independent experts at the meeting and elsewhere said the study's findings, which were only marginally statistically significant, must be confirmed before recommending that women with breast cancer follow such a diet."
And only The LA Times noted, "But a major epidemiological study from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston published in 1999 found no firm link, even hinting that a low-fat diet might increase the risk of breast cancer."
If that's the case, what's this story doing on the front page of all three papers? Don't editors know that people will read the headlines and take away what they want to hear? Particularly for cancer patients, any straw is one to be grasped, no matter how slim.
Let's dangle false hopes in front of those already desperate and terrified. Nice work, media moguls.
