2488 - Portrayal of Radiation Therapy in North American TV Shows
Presenter(s)
E. A. Sutton1, R. Fleuranvil2, Y. Sharifzadeh3, S. Mensink4, K. N. Lee4, A. E. Garda5, R. Phillips1, R. W. Gao1, and S. C. Lester1; 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 2Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 3Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, 4Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 5University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Purpose/Objective(s): Many Americans learn about health topics, including cancer, from television (TV) shows. The portrayal of oncology in media can shape patients’ understanding and expectations of care. We aim to evaluate how radiation therapy (RT) is portrayed in TV’s most influential shows to gain insight on how TV may inform patients’ perceptions of and decisions surrounding RT.
Materials/Methods: We selected the Rolling Stones’s 2016 list of 100 greatest TV shows of all time to identify the most culturally significant North American TV shows. We excluded shows set in the medical setting, news, and cartoons. We used a publicly available online script repository and queried all scripts for the following keywords: cancer, tumor, chemo(therapy), surgery, and/or radiotherapy/radiation. In this report, we focused on scenes mentioning “radiotherapy” or “radiation”. These scenes were analyzed for accuracy and representation of RT and categorized using descriptive statistics.
Results: Seventy-one shows met inclusion criteria for analysis, 34 (48%) of which included keywords. Cancer treatments mentioned included chemotherapy (80%), RT (11%, 19 of 173 references), and surgery (9%). Three shows referencing RT premiered between 1990-1999, and 3 between 2000-2009. None of the scenes that mentioned RT showed RT delivery; however, one scene that mentioned RT was followed later in the episode by a separate scene without dialogue depicting external beam RT delivery. Of the 12 characters who discussed or received RT, 6 (50%) were main or regular supporting characters. Three had lung cancer, 2 breast, 2 prostate, 1 cervix, 1 leukemia, and 1 AVM; the other 2 did not specify diagnosis. Of the 19 scenes mentioning RT, 10 (53%) were generally medically accurate while 5 (26%) were grossly misleading. Regardless of accuracy, 8 (42%) portrayed RT as curative or life-prolonging and 6 (32%) as palliative or ineffective; the remaining did not address intent or outcome. Nine scenes discussed adverse effects (AEs), only 3 of which were plausible RT AEs. Inaccuracies included misattributing chemo AEs to RT (2; 22%) or fabricating AEs (4; 44%), such as describing radiation to cause internal melting, burning, or crumbling (3), or even causing a food allergy (1). Radiation was often portrayed fearfully, for example, “[RT] burns you up inside – melts everything together.” Only 4 (21%) scenes involving RT portrayed characters as relieved, happy, or satisfied; the others (79%) portrayed dissatisfaction, distress, or disgust.
Conclusion: TV informs many patients’ perceptions of medicine. RT is under- and misrepresented in most TV scenes about cancer. This analysis offers clinicians insight into how RT’s negative TV portrayal may contribute to patients’ anxiety and decisions regarding RT.