Bill Tancer is the general manager of global research at Hitwise and writes a column for Time.com called “Science of Search.” His recent column on “Restless Leg, Mumps and Other Maladies” addressed the effect of media attention to certain conditions & diseases.
The column is a neat summary of a pattern we had noticed: The most common cancers are not the most common cancer search terms.
Here is a list of estimated numbers of new cases and deaths for each common cancer type:
1) Skin
2) Prostate
3) Lung
4) Breast
5) Colon
And here is a list of the top 5 cancer search terms in the Hitwise database for April:
1) Cancer
2) Breast cancer
3) Lung cancer
4) Cervical cancer
5) Skin cancer
Colon is #7 and prostate is #9. Some possible explanations: Women do more health-related searches than men. Cervical cancer was in the news because of the HPV vaccine. Any other ideas or observations from the field?
Susannah Fox on Public Q&A: “I received scary test results. What questions should I ask my clinician?”: “Thanks, Samantha! I love your signature line/bona fides list — you tick the boxes for “learned and loved experience” described…” May 6, 15:33
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