Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Isolation and Functional Assessment of Human Breast Cancer Stem Cells from Cell and Tissue Samples
Published on: October 2, 2020
Cancer-related stigma in the USA and Israeli mass media: an exploratory study of structural stigma
1School of Social Work, Faculty of Social Welfare & Health Sciences, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, 349883, Haifa, Israel. msoffer@staff.haifa.ac.il.
Purpose:
Cancer is considered a stigmatized condition in many cultures. One key cultural site that produces illness-related structural stigma is mass media. This study explored the social construction of cancer-related stigma in mass media during the time of COVID-19. Specifically, we compared how cancer-related stigma is constructed in two contexts: American and Israeli mass media.
Methods:
Two samples were drawn: all articles that mentioned cancer and published in a 4-month period in USA Today (N = 117) and Israel Today (N = 108). Inductive Thematic Analysis was used to analyze the articles.
Results:
Three similar themes were identified in the samples: "the trivialization of cancer," "cancer as metaphor," and the "the war against cancer." In both samples, people with cancer were depicted as heroic. Despite the similarities in themes, how each theme was constructed reflected sociocultural differences between the two samples.
Conclusions:
There appear to be presented universal mechanisms of cancer-related stigma in the media, alongside cultural differences in how they are employed and constructed.
Implications For Cancer Survivors:
The results stress the importance of debunking cancer-related stigma in the media and elsewhere. Cancer survivors and their families, reporters, researchers, and other stakeholders in the two studied countries should collaborate to devise culturally informed guidelines for reporting and writing about cancer.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Cancer-Critical Genes II: Tumor Suppressor Genes
When the function of certain critical genes, especially those involved in cell cycle regulation and cell growth signaling cascades, gets disrupted, it upsets the cell cycle progression. Such cells with unchecked cell cycles start proliferating uncontrollably and eventually develop into tumors.
Such genes that act...
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
The Tumor Microenvironment
Surveys
mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression
The mTOR pathway or the...
Cancer Prevention
Some...

