How reliable are “reputable sources” for medical information on the Internet? The case of hormonal therapy to treat prostate cancer

Caring for the person with cancer: Information and support needs and the role of technology

“…Regular updating and monitoring of information would be required to ensure that the content remained current. Ogah and Wassersug evaluated online information related to prostate cancer and found that after 40 hours of researching, only 43 out of 21 million websites provided current, relevant, and easy to read information. Further, the use of a single interface combining all information and support available to carers may reduce the time burden spent searching numerous existing resources.…”

Luteinizing Hormone–Releasing Hormone Agonists: A Quick Reference for Prevalence Rates of Potential Adverse Effects

“…It has also been noted that the drug information provided from pharmacies on LHRHa is often inconsistent and largely incomplete 10 and that even reputable online sources of ADT information lack reliability and accuracy. 11 …”

Systemic bias in the medical literature on androgen deprivation therapy and its implication to clinical practice

“…Our data show that alternatives to LHRH agonists for androgen suppression are rarely acknowledged in the medical literature – particularly in articles supported by the LHRH agonist industry itself. This was also noted by Ogah and Wassersug (20) in their survey of internet websites designed to help patients and owned by non‐profit organisations that patients would reasonably expect to be objective and reliable.…”

“…There is a vast literature showing how publicly accessible internet sites on matters of health are often out of date and fail to distinguish evidence‐based from non‐evidence‐based treatments. However, recently Ogah and Wassersug (20) have shown that even websites about PCa treatments that both patients and their physicians would reasonably expect to be up to date and authoritative also fail in those areas when it comes to ADT. For their study, Ogah and Wassersug targeted internet sites that one could reasonably expect to be high quality and reliable based on the organisations that owned and maintained those sites.…”