Shikha Jain, Founder, Chair of the Board (Former CEO) at Women in Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine at The University of Illinois Cancer Center, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Misinformation is not only a communication problem. It is a clinical one.
Today in The New York Times, Nina Agrawal reports on new research published in JAMA Network Open showing that prescriptions for ivermectin and fenbendazole among cancer patients more than doubled in the months following a single January 2025 podcast episode viewed more than 13 million times.
There is no high-quality evidence that either drug treats cancer in humans. Fenbendazole is a veterinary antiparasitic not approved for human use.
I was asked to comment because this is what I see in my clinic. Cancer patients face a convergence of fear, urgency, uncertainty, information overload, and a profound need for hope. In that environment, a confident anecdote can outweigh decades of evidence.
The cost is not theoretical. Patients delay or forgo curative treatment. Some return with disease that is no longer treatable. Some do not return at all.
We are now operating in a landscape where a podcast reaches more people in a week than the entire oncology workforce will counsel in a year.
That asymmetry demands a serious response.
To my fellow clinicians: Your voice matters more than you think. Share evidence-based content. Engage with patients who arrive with questions, not dismissal. Show up in the spaces where misinformation thrives.
To health system and academic leaders: Invest in your clinicians as communicators. Media training, protected time, and institutional support are no longer optional, they are patient safety infrastructure.
To platforms and policymakers: The status quo is producing measurable harm. Accountability for health misinformation that influences medical decisions is overdue.
To patients and families: Before you start, or stop, any treatment based on something you heard online, talk to your oncologist. That conversation could save your life.
Link to full article.”
Other articles featuring Shikha Jain on OncoDaily.