# Inoculate newly diagnosed patients against common cancer scams

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-moon-prebunking-at-diagnosis/  
OnCo record `idea-moon-prebunking-at-diagnosis` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

In the first weeks after diagnosis, tell patients plainly what kinds of false claims and expensive unproven clinics they will encounter and how to spot them.

## Summary

Prebunking (inoculation) is effective in randomised studies for political and health misinformation: explaining manipulation techniques in advance reduces later susceptibility. Newly diagnosed patients are a predictable target of alternative clinics and supplement marketing. The proposal is a short prebunking module (video plus leaflet, delivered by the navigator or nurse) covering the common techniques (testimonials, suppressed-cure narratives, natural-equals-safe, fake experts) and how to raise anything with the team without judgement.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Prebunked patients show lower susceptibility to unproven therapy claims at three months and are more likely to disclose supplement and alternative therapy use to their team.
- Rationale: Technique-based inoculation generalises across claims, which matters because specific scams change constantly.
- Proposed test: Randomised trial at diagnosis in three centres; primary endpoint susceptibility score and disclosure at three months, secondary spending on unproven therapies.
- Maturity: early-clinical
- Actor: clinic

## Sources

- Bottleneck evidence (Misinformation and unproven therapies): Johnson et al., Cancer misinformation and harmful information on Facebook and other social media (JNCI 2022): https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djab141

## Connected records

- bottlenecks: [Misinformation and unproven therapies](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-misinformation/), [Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-patient-voice/)
- key papers: [Cancer Misinformation and Harmful Information on Facebook and Other Social Media: A Brief Report](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-johnson-j-natl-cancer-inst/)
- terms: [Unproven diet claims (alkaline, juice, 'anti-cancer' diets)](https://onco.cc/terms/unproven-diet-claims/)
- ideas: [Ask about diet at diagnosis, and prebunk the myths before the internet does](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-nl-ask-about-diet-prebunking/)

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