Researchers introduce a multi-dimensional taxonomy to characterize cancer misinformation in Reddit discussions regarding breast, lung, colon, and prostate cancer. The framework captures seven dimensions, including misinformation presence, information type, risk level, stance, and topical focus.
- Cancer-related misinformation constitutes approximately 6% of Reddit cancer discussions, with substantial variation across communities.
- Few-shot prompting substantially improves large language model classification performance for nuanced taxonomy dimensions.
- Recurring narratives include unsupported treatments, distrust of conventional medicine, and misleading claims about diagnosis and screening.
The study provides a foundation for multi-dimensional modeling of online cancer misinformation using expert-annotated data.