Hollywood gets bad review for creating ’anxiety and fear’ through its portrayal of cancer
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David J. Benjamin, MD, recently met with a patient who recalled the moment a previous physician had diagnosed him with cancer.
“The first thought that came to his mind was a movie he saw where the character was told [they] had 3, 4 weeks to live,” Benjamin told Healio.
The man’s fear did not surprise Benjamin, an oncologist at Hoag Family Cancer Institute in California.
Hollywood films disproportionately characterize cancer as incurable, according to a study by Benjamin and colleagues published in JCO Oncology Practice.
Movies also do not accurately depict the multitude of treatment options — focusing heavily on chemotherapy while ignoring immunotherapy and palliative care. They rarely delve into disease specifics such as type of cancer or discuss the financial burdens individuals and families face.
“It’s not a criticism of Hollywood,” Benjamin said.
“We acknowledge that their job is for entertainment, but we do also recognize that Hollywood has such a big impact,” he added. “There’s a lot of studies that show films can influence the general public’s opinions about certain topics, whether it’s race relations, psychiatric disease or HIV. This is another area where the public could be influenced. It’s important for physicians to make an emphasis on educating somebody who is in his or her clinic about the type of cancer, curability, treatment — all those factors. It’s important for physicians to be cognizant.”
Benjamin estimates roughly 20% to 25% of his patients used their media history as the basis for their cancer knowledge, which is why he wanted to be a part of this study.
He said they evaluated 104 English-language films released between 2010-2020 with a “cancer” tag on IMDB. About two-thirds of the characters with cancer had an incurable type of the disease, whereas only 10% had a curable form.
Only a one-third of the films discussed cancer type, with brain (10% of instances), breast, lung, leukemia, sarcoma and testicular being the most common, even though brain cancer falls outside the top 10 cancers in the U.S.
The severity of cancers and their vagueness can offer suspense, but also skew perceptions.
“It’s an unknown entity,” Benjamin said. “There’s no clear treatment. The basis of this anxiety and fear, a lot of my patients have told me, is because of the unknown.”
Benjamin stressed oncologists need to be aware of patients’ potential misconceptions and should educate while discussing a diagnosis.
“Once they receive that education, they all have told me they feel much better,” he said. “They have a better grasp of what is going on. The cancer, the treatment, the curability — if that’s applicable.”
Benjamin has suggestions if a Hollywood director or producer ever asked him for his opinion.
“If Hollywood got individuals who are being treated for cancer, or even oncologists involved, they may make those storylines more reflective of day-to-day cancer care,” he said.
For now, Benjamin emphasizes to his patients that what they see on the big screen has zero impact on what happens to them, even if there is a rare instance where the story is based in reality.
“Every person’s experience with cancer is unique, whether it’s the other medical conditions they have, their treatment for their subtype of cancer, or [its] mutations,” he said. “That usually helps with education — to help reassure somebody not to focus too much on something they’ve seen or heard.”
For more information:
David J. Benjamin, MD, can be reached at david.benjamin@hoag.org.
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