Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Research

Accuracy and self correction of information received from an internet breast cancer list: content analysis

BMJ 2006; 332 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38753.524201.7C (Published 20 April 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;332:939

Rapid Response:

Some background on the list

The Breast Cancer list referred to in the paper is hosted at
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NF
and was begun by Jon Church. The sole control on the list
is a limit on the number of daily messages permitted.

An archive for the content is maintained by Pete Bevin of
Toronto, whose partner Menya Wolfe died from the purportedly
rare inflammatory breast cancer. Neither the list nor the archive are
supported by Canadian and provincial governments.

The majority of subscribers are from the U.S.A., but there are
members from Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Israel,the Netherlands,
New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden. Members of the list have an annual
get-together, held so far in North America.

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

21 April 2006
Brian M Lynch
Senior Research Professor, Chemistry
St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS B2G2W5, Canada