text_1: Prostate Cancer Studies Find Benefit in Daily Acetaminophen and Brisk Walks
text_2: Here’s some of what was missing in the story:  Not all prostate cancers are equal. So the acetaminophen/aggressive cancer study – especially – required some perspective; Observational studies can’t prove cause and effect. So a headline that says “studies find benefit” is wrong. You can’t prove benefit when you can’t establish a causal link. There was no evaluation of the quality of the evidence. Without knowing the screening history and risk factor profile of the aceteminophen users, it is very difficult to interpret the observed association. Cancer progression is a very heterogeneous endpoint and the article did not address this issue or report meaningful results (absolute risk). There’s been a lot of prostate cancer news in the past two weeks, largely because the American Urological Association annual conference was just held. But are we really telling men something they need to know with a story like this? Or are we just turning up the force on the firehose of information that we flood readers with?