Table 3. Comparison of threat and efficacy in news with cancer statistics, for top 10 most-covered cancers in the news.
| Cancer type | News threat | News efficacy | Incidence | Mortality | Incidence change (APC) | Rank difference | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Rank | Rank | % | Rank | % | Rank | Δ% | I-TH | M-TH | C-TH | I-EF | M-EF | C-EF | |
| Breast | 4 | 8 | 6 | 7.2 | 6 | 2.7 | 4 | 6.0 | +2 | +2 | 0 | -2 | -2 | -4 |
| Colorectal | 5 | 1 | 3 | 12.9 | 4 | 10.5 | 5 | 5.3 | -2 | -1 | 0 | 2 | +3 | +4 |
| Cervical | 8 | 3 | 9 | 1.9 | 8 | 1.3 | 10 | -4.2 | +1 | 0 | +2 | +6 | +5 | +7 |
| Prostate | 9 | 6 | 7 | 3.9 | 7 | 1.8 | 2 | 13.0 | -2 | -2 | -7 | +1 | +1 | -4 |
| Lung | 3 | 7 | 4 | 10.2 | 1 | 21.8 | 7 | 0.0 | +1 | -2 | +4 | -3 | -6 | 0 |
| Skin | 6 | 4 | 10 | 1.9 | 9 | 0.6 | 3 | 6.5 | +4 | +3 | -3 | +6 | +5 | -1 |
| Thyroid | 7 | 10 | 1 | 17.6 | 10 | 0.5 | 1 | 22.3 | -6 | +3 | -6 | -9 | 0 | -9 |
| Liver | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7.9 | 2 | 15.7 | 9 | -1.9 | +3 | 0 | +7 | +3 | 0 | +7 |
| Stomach | 10 | 5 | 2 | 14.7 | 3 | 13.9 | 8 | -0.3 | -8 | -7 | -2 | -3 | -2 | +3 |
| Pancreatic | 1 | 9 | 8 | 2.3 | 5 | 6.0 | 6 | 1.5 | +7 | +4 | +5 | -1 | -4 | -3 |
Number of news stories = 465. Rank is a hierarchical score among each category, from the highest (1) to the lowest (10). Rank difference was calculated by subtracting news rank from actual cancer statistics rank. For example, a positive score means that threat of getting a particular cancer was over-emphasized in the news in comparison to its actual incidence, morality, or APC.
I, incidence; M, mortality; C, incidence change (APC); TH, threat; EF, efficacy.