Knowledge of Reproductive System Cancers, Their Treatments and Side Effects
Abstract
We
explored, via an online questionnaire, knowledge of breast and
reproductive system cancers in patients and non-patients
who access the internet for information on these diseases.
We compared that knowledge to the attention the diseases have received
in medical research and on the Internet. Data were collected
from 690 respondents (37 % male, 63 % female) about their knowledge
of prevalence, lethality, treatments and side effects of
testicular, prostate, breast, uterine, cervical and ovarian cancers.
Most males, but only half of the female participants, were
patients themselves. Although participants showed better knowledge
of cancers specific to their own sex, both sexes felt
familiar with breast cancer and less aware of other cancers. Women were
as aware as men of side effects of treatments for male
reproductive cancers. Sex differences in awareness appear to reflect
different attitudes towards illness, bias toward females as
caregivers, and the disproportionate media attention given to
breast cancer.
