Linguistic Framing in “Cancer” and “Cancer”-Adjacent Terms

Linguistic framing - the use of background conceptual knowledge to interpret language - is a foundational part of how language researchers understand meaning. The specific question we set out to answer concerns the overall trend of overdiagnosis and overtreatment of low-risk, screen-detected cancers and how the terminology used to diagnose them could minimize harm. We tested for a framing effect surrounding "cancer," using one term that is technically a synonym with "cancer" ("carcinoma") and two terms that are potentially but not necessarily closely correlated with cancer: "tumor" and "abnormal cells." We observe that lay people are significantly more likely to associate "cancer" with death and fear than its synonym "carcinoma," and that laypeople are also likely to erroneously interpret "tumor" as synonymous with "cancer" in a diagnostic context. While there are clear and known dangers of using medical jargon in diagnostic contexts, we argue that the potential for miscommunication involving common terms like "cancer" is even more insidious and potentially harmful, because it comes without any signals of interpretive difference. Our findings support a number of recent papers and editorials that stress the dangers to patients of using the scientific label "cancer" in cases of low-risk or non-canonical carcinoma.