Beta blockers and ovarian cancer
Our Review Summary
This
Wall Street Journal article nicely summarizes the findings of a retrospective
study
of 1,400 cases of women with ovarian cancer; some of whom had been
prescribed beta-blockers for high blood pressure and appeared to have
better outcomes than those not taking beta-blockers. It hits on nearly
all of our criteria, and was more thorough and balanced than an MD
Anderson news release that initially announced the findings to the
world. (More on that below.) A bit more detail on the cost of these
drugs, and a bit more restraint in discussing the outcomes of a small
group of women who were taking a particular class of beta-blocker and
had much better survival statistics, would have rounded out this story.
Why This Matters
We
often say that news releases can set the tone for subsequent media
coverage of new research, and that a poor news release can lead to a
great deal of misinformation reaching the public. We’ve compared this
phenomenon to
sheep following one another.
However, it’s also true that good reporting can fill in the holes left
by an incomplete news release and present a more balanced portrait of
findings to readers.....
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