New research examined almost 1000 posts on tests for fertility, testosterone levels and cancer risk. The post looked simple enough: Kim Kardashian, hair pulled back in a ponytail, posed in front of an MRI scanner wearing scrubs branded with the logo of the medical imaging company Prenuvo. “I recently did this @prenuvo scan and had to tell you all about this lifesaving machine,” she wrote.
The MRI scanner could pick up on traces of cancer or other diseases, she said. But the post was too simple, University of Sydney public health researcher Brooke Nickel thought when she saw it in August 2023. What about the possible harms, she wondered.
The test might find an extremely early stage cancer that would lead to a patient receiving invasive treatment, even though it may never have progressed to something more serious. Kardashian’s post made it seem as if there were only upsides. That post, and others like it, prompted Nickel to look into how other celebrities and influencers promote increasingly popular medical tests such as full-body MRI scans.
They also examined posts for products that claim to detect cancer in blood or analyse a hormone linked to fertility, testosterone levels and the gut microbiome..