Cancer and "bad luck": risk perception, decision making, and risk-reducing behavior.

If success of a scientific study is measured by how much conversation it triggers, then the article “Variation in Cancer Risk Among Tissues Can Be Explained by the Number of Stem Cell Divisions” has been very successful.(1) Unfortunately, the ensuing public discussion demonstrates how flawed communications can turn potentially valuable research into a public health failure. In addition to raising important discussion points about the study’s methodology and the language of its press release, observers have noted three intertwined messages highlighted by media accounts of the study:(2)