User:Paul5672/sandbox

Welcome to your sandbox!

Link to Project Resource Page
Project Homepage and Resources

Wikipedia Page Improvement Plan (December 4th)
1. Proposed Changes:

Original Text:

While a combination of radiation and chemotherapy may be useful for rectal cancer, its use in colon cancer is not routine due to the sensitivity of the bowels to radiation.

Proposed Changes:

While a combination of radiation and chemotherapy may be useful for rectal cancer, chemoradiotherapy can increase acute treatment-related toxicity in patients, and has not been shown to improve survival rates compared to radiotherapy alone, although it is associated with less local recurrence.[1] The use of radiotherapy in colon cancer is not routine due to the sensitivity of the bowels to radiation.

2. Rationale for proposed change:

- The added information provides important context to the preceding line, which claims that radiation and chemotherapy together may be useful for rectal cancer. While this line is not wrong per se, it is inadequate because it can be interpreted as claiming that combined radiation therapy and chemotherapy may actually be more effective than radiotherapy alone, which is not necessarily the case.

- The added line points out that, despite being useful for rectal cancer, the combination of radiation and chemotherapy hasn’t actually been shown to be any more effective than radiotherapy alone with regards to the key outcome of interest, (i.e. increasing survival rates), and even has some negative side effects (i.e. acute toxicity), though it does have the benefit of decreasing local recurrence. This information clarifies the original claim about the usefulness of combined radiation and chemotherapy by indicating that it may actually be unnecessary or even detrimental to combine these therapies rather than to simply use radiation therapy alone, while conceding that there may be some benefit in the form of reduced local recurrence.

- The information came from The Cochrane Library Database of Systematic Reviews:

Mccarthy, K., Pearson, K., Fulton, R., & Hewitt, J. (2012). Pre-operative chemoradiation for non-metastatic locally advanced rectal cancer. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. doi:10.1002/14651858.cd008368.pub2

3. Controversy:

- As described in the previous section, the main controversy is the claim that the combination of radiation and chemotherapy may be useful for rectal cancer. While this claim is not technically wrong (since the combined therapies are, in fact, collectively effective at treating rectal cancer), it is misleading without added context, because it fails to point out that radiation therapy alone is just as effective at improving the key outcome of survival rates, and with fewer potential complications. Since the claim is not technically wrong, albeit incomplete, I’ve decided to add information rather than changing or removing the original line.

4. Critique of Source:

- My source is from the Cochrane Database, which is considered the “Gold Standard” source for reviews, with an excellent reputation for being reliable and unbiased. The authors did not declare any conflicts of interest or any affiliations that might suggest bias. The article was written in a factual and neutral tone and the search methods and selection criteria for primary sources were clear, objective and neutral. Thus, I believe the source is reliable and I have not identified any issues or concerns that may have impacted my plans for the information that I’m choosing to share.

Practice Editing Here (Nov 23rd in-class Wiki session work)

 * This is a place to practice clicking the "edit" button and practice adding references (via the citation button).
 * Name of wiki article: Colorectal Cancer.

Assignment # 3

 * Note: You will be emailing your assignment # 3 directly to your tutor, however, please paste a version here that excludes your personal information. This will allow us to support your efforts on Wikipedia prior to editing "live" in the article.

What to post on the Wikipedia article talk page?

 * This will also be covered on Nov 23rd in class. Your group should use the below template to share an outline of your proposed improvements (including your new wording and citations). Article talk pages are not places to share your assignment answers. The Wikipedia community will be more interested in viewing your exact article improvement suggestions including where you plan to improve the article (which section), what wording you suggest, and the exact citation (Note: all citations must meet WP:MEDRS)
 * You will not be able to paste citations directly from your sandbox to talk pages (unless you are interested in editing/learning Wiki-code in the "source editing" mode). We suggest re-adding your citations on the talk page manually (using the cite button and populating the citation by pasting in the DOI, website, or PMID). You will have to repeat this process yet again when you edit the actual article live.
 * Talk Page Template: CARL Medical Editing Initiative/Fall 2020/Talk Page Template