Simon Holding

Media influence on Herceptin subsidization in Australia: application of the rule of rescue?

Summary Background In August 2006, the Australian government announced that Herceptin (Trastuzumab) would be added to the national Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) of government-subsidized drugs, for treatment with adjuvant chemotherapy of HER2 breast cancer. Following initial reticence, the health minister responded to a campaign by patients and patient advocacy groups by announcing PBS subsidization which lowered the cost of a weekly dose from A

‘A disease many people still feel uncomfortable talking about’: Australian television coverage of colorectal cancer

1000 to A

Smoking-related disease on Australian television news : inaccurate portrayals may contribute to public misconceptions

30. The cost to the government would be A

Framing responsibility: coverage of lung cancer among smokers and non-smokers in Australian television news.

470 million over three years for treatment of an estimated 2100 women annually. Design We analysed the news frames used in all direct and attributed statements (n=239) in television news coverage of the discourse preceding the Herceptin decision by the Australian government. Setting Five Sydney free-to-air channels between October 2005 and August 2006. Main outcome measures News frames or themes. Results Of five news frames identified, one (‘desperate, sick women in double jeopardy because of callous government/incompetent bureaucracy’) accounted for 54% of all reported statements. Government financial parsimony was framed as responsible for the womens plight, with drug industry pricing never mentioned. Claimed benefits of Herceptin often conflated cancer non-recurrence and survival and favoured quantification rhetoric which emphasized percentage increases in improvement rather than the more modest increases in absolute survival. Conclusions News frames invoking key tenets of the ‘rule of rescue’ dominated television discourse on Herceptin. Clinicians, patients, their families and patient advocacy groups invoking the rule of rescue can increase the likelihood of achieving their objective of gaining access to expensive healthcare such as pharmaceuticals. Rational, criteria-based public health policy will find it hard to resist the rule of rescue imperative.

“No Respecter of Youth”: Over-representation of Young Women in Australian Television Coverage of Breast Cancer

Objective: To examine the coverage of colorectal cancer on Australian television news over a 3 year period commencing May 2005, and compare it with that given to other cancers.

Impact of news of celebrity illness on breast cancer screening: Kylie Minogue's breast cancer diagnosis.

Objectives: To describe the range and frequency of reportage of tobacco‐related disease on Australian television news.

Choice and voice: Obesity debates in television news

Objective: To analyse news portrayals of lung cancer and associated inferences about responsibility in Australian television news.Methods: Analysis of television news reports, broadcast on Sydneys five free‐to‐air television channels between 2 May 2005 and 31 August 2009, for all statements pertaining to lung cancer.

The news is (not) all good: misrepresentations and inaccuracies in Australian news media reports on prostate cancer screening

Ninety four percent of new breast cancer cases in Australian women occur in those aged over 40. Mammographic breast screening programs target women over 40, especially those aged 50-69, but participation rates in this age group have recently declined. To test the hypothesis that young women, at low risk for breast cancer, are overrepresented in television news, we analyzed all televised news reports on age and breast cancer shown on five free-to-air Sydney television stations, from 3 May 2005 to 28 February 2007, to determine the age of women shown with, or at risk for, the disease. Over half (55%) of statements about age and breast cancer referred to young women stated or known to be aged under 40. Sixty seven percent of images of women in breast cancer reports were known or judged to be women aged under 40. Three cases in young celebrity women accounted for 53% of all statements and 24% of all images about young women and breast cancer. Overrepresentation of young women with breast cancer in television news coverage does not reflect the epidemiology of the disease. This imbalance may contribute to public uncertainty regarding screening policy.