This brief article focuses on a treatment that attempts to preserve fertility for young (under 40) breast cancer survivors. It does a good job of describing the potential benefits but leaves gaps in explaining some of the potential limitations and side effects, in particular the failure to mention the potential adverse affects on disease outcome.
Young breast cancer survivors can be devastated by the possibility that treating their cancer may leave them unable to bear children. It is critical that they have full information about the impact of treatment approaches on their fertility and on their cancer. The editorial is especially useful for practicing physicians partnering with their patients around cancer treatment and fertility issues.
Costs of the treatment are not mentioned in the article; rather, the costliness of an alternative, storing eggs prior to treatment, is emphasized.
The primary benefit from the described approach to loss of fertility in women of child-bearing age with early-stage breast cancer was described as a lowered rate of early menopause. The article did an excellent job of putting this in perspective by including the editorial statement cautioning the reader to not equate resumption of menstrual cycles with preserved fertility.
The largest gap in this story is its failure to mention potential harms. In particular, it fails to mention the concern about potential adverse effects on disease outcome, a concern clearly stated in the editorial and in the original article.
If longer, this article could have benefited from added detail: long-term outcome data is not available; perhaps most importantly, there is no mention of potential adverse effects on disease outcome. The article headline could have been improved if it included the quality of caution so clearly stated in the last paragraph. The weight of the editorial statement, with a good deal of detail in a few sentences, will be highly useful to readers.
This story is free of disease-mongering and clearly states the importance of the issue for a specific population, younger breast cancer patients.
The story cited an editorial that accompanied the journal article. However, there was no indication of potential conflicts or lack of conflicts of interest, despite disclosures stated in the journal article.
The article did a satisfactory job of mentioning one major alternative to the reviewed procedure.
There is no statement in the article as to availability of the treatment, although the information is correctly identified as arising from a “phase three study.” But are readers really supposed to know what a Phase Three study means? Want to do a reader poll to test how many do?
The article describes the study as new but fails to indicate whether or not the drug and procedure are new. And as the editorial points out, there are 5 other studies testing this so there is more data out there and it appears to be a bit contradictory.
The article did an adequate job of citing the original study and the associated editorial but omitted some significant detail needed to help the reader reach a clear understanding. .
Systematic, Criteria-Driven
Monday at #ADA2021, an infectious disease epidemiologist, a journalist, and a researcher shared perspectives on communication of risk in the era of COVID-19: http://ow.ly/ROfR30rMeE7 @AstleyCM @garyschwitzer @berthahidalgo @ADA_DiabetesPro
Shoutouts to @susan_bewley @drkevinknopf @MichaelBaum11 in this call for more than fawning coverage from press releases for these kinds of stories.
Also, linked history inside goes back 5 years just on Grail apparently trying to become Holy Grail. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1408849696416841731
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