Claims in cancer centers' ads questioned

You've seen the ads. Patients stare out of full-page magazine ads or television commercials and tell you they owe their lives to the hospital they chose for their cancer treatment.

But unlike strictly regulated advertisements for drugs, marketing campaigns for cancer centers do not have to show evidence for their claims of superiority, even if they existed, a story in the New York Times reports. That could lead people to believe that choosing a certain hospital could mean the difference between life and death, Dr. H. Gilbert Welch of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice told the Times.

Take this Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center ad for its proton therapy center, which treats brain cancer: "We gave Nick something he couldn't find anywhere else in the Northeast. Life without cancer."

While Mass. General does have the only proton therapy center in the region, no rigorous studies show that the therapy has a better cure rate for brain cancer, the story says. The hospital said few studies of the rare pediatric cancer in question have been done because of ethical issues.

Dr. Bruce A. Chabner, clinical director of Mass. General's cancer center, thinks treatment ads should avoid patients' individual stories  and cancer centers should come up with advertising guidelines.

"Would I like to see these ads be more technical and less testimonial in their presentation?" Chabner told the Times, referring to ads by cancer centers, including his own institution. "Sure I would."