Hot topic: Science in the time of TikTok

Who can fail to have been impressed by the amazing developments in the field of oncology on display at ASCO 2025, everything from immunotherapies to ADCs to new biomarkers. 

But Optimum was struck by a number of studies which illustrate a challenge that isn’t clinical or technical, but vital, nonetheless. 

They were about trust. 

Over the past decade there has been a huge increase in the amount of misinformation available online about cancer and cancer treatments, doctors and researchers said. 

Social media is now awash with bogus claims about miracle cures and the purported dangers of tried and tested (or rather, trialled and tested) cancer treatments. 

The result is that some patients are turning down proven options until it is too late. 

Dr Julie Gralow, Chief Medical Officer of ASCO, recalled how several of her patients had wanted to take “an all-natural treatment approach”; while Dr Richard Simcock, of Macmillan Cancer Support, said he’d seen two young women who’d “declined all proven medical treatments and are pursuing unproven and radical diets, promoted on social media”. 

It might be tempting to think this is just a problem of the alternative fringe, which has always existed and always will. 

But US researchers Dr Fumiko Chino and Brandon M. Godinich found almost half of people surveyed didn’t trust scientists about cancer information, with one in 20 trusting scientists “not at all”.  

Doctors fared better, but a quarter of people still said they didn’t trust them when it came to medical information about cancer. 

Dr Chino, of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, warned: “We are losing the battle for communication.” 

The 34,000 delegates at this year’s ASCO were no doubt wowed by the incredible advances that continue to be made in the fight against cancer. 

But it is worth remembering that those 34,000 – like those of us who work in the wider life science sector – are the converted. 

It’s the unconverted we need to preach to.