On August 9, a regional plane flying from Cascavel, a city in Brazil, to San Paulo tragically spun out of control and crashed mid-flight. All 62 individuals on board were killed in the crash, which is still being investigated by experts to determine the exact cause.
In the wake of the crash, English-language reporting by platforms such as the Daily Mail centred not only on witness reports of the plane’s unusual spinning, but on eight passengers that many news outlets are describing as “cancer doctors” travelling to an Oncology conference in San Paulo. Some social media accounts have this as a springboard to make claims about the “cancer industry” and a conspiracy against cancer researchers who are close to discovering a cure.
According to these claims, the cancer industry is intentionally preventing and suppressing cures in order to ensure that chemotherapy and cancer drugs will continue to generate revenue. The most viral claims directly imply that facts surrounding the crash – such as the oncology conference and presence of several doctors – suggest a conspiracy and targeted elimination of cancer researchers.
Some posts state that the doctors were travelling to a conference to discuss or present a cure for cancer. Others specify that the conference is held by the Brazilian Society of Cellular Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplantation (SBTMO), which they claim decides “what is considered real or fake in that cancer field.” Per these claims, some form of new research or breakthrough was suppressed by the deaths of the doctors, and the crash is therefore suspicious or possibly orchestrated by parties with an interest in cancer rates rising.
We dissected the different elements being put forth to support the claim to find out if there is any element of truth to the social media assertions.
What do we know?
Firstly, we examined the publicly available facts surrounding the crash – including official statements and credible Brazilian news media reports.
While some English-language news media has specifically reported that six “leading” oncologists and two residents were killed, we could not find direct confirmation from official sources that this was the case – neither have there been corresponding reports from Brazilian news media.
An official from the Regional Medical Council of Paraná (the state from which the plane departed), stated shortly after the crash that eight doctors were killed on their way to an oncology conference – which seems to be the main source for subsequent English-language reporting.
However, we could find no other evidence to support this. Brazil’s Federal Council of Medicine posted a statement sending condolences to the medical professionals who lost their lives but did not mention a specific number of oncologists. And, as more information has become available in the days following the crash, only two individuals have been directly linked to an oncology conference.
The two doctors were residents (fresh medical school graduates training in a specialised field) at a cancer hospital. According to family, they were headed to an oncology conference – however, no further information about the title or specific details regarding the conference are available.
A full list of all the deceased passengers has since been released on Brazilian media – including names, occupations, and destinations. Based on this list and the detailed profiles that can be found in Portuguese, although there were a number of medical professionals on board, only three have any connections to oncology. The other medical professionals include a paediatrician, a veterinarian, a physiotherapist, a nutritionist, and a pharmacist – all with reasons for travelling that do not involve an oncology conference.
The profiles also show that a doctor being named on social media as one of the deceased who made “breakthroughs” in cancer research has been misidentified. Dr Leonardo Ferreira is still alive – the Dr Ferreira named in media is actually Dr Leonel Ferreira, who was a professor of Radiology travelling to San Paulo to visit family. 
Finally, posts claiming that the conference was run by the Brazilian Society of Cellular Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplantation (SBTMO), also appear to be untrue. The SBTMO website has information about a Congress, which was held from 31st July to 3rd August – ending several days before the crash occurred. The organisation issued a statement on 11 August clarifying that none of the passengers were headed to a conference held by SBTMO and that they do not provide accreditation or decide standards for cell therapy.
We were not able to find any official information about the topic and focus of the actual oncology conference that some of the doctors were travelling to – neither could we find any indication that it was specifically about vaccines or cancer-curing research. These elements of the claim posts also appear to be unsubstantiated.
After looking through Brazilian articles and reports, it appears that a lack of due diligence and translation issues could have contributed to the inaccurate English-language reporting. However, there also seem to be blatantly false statements being made that do not have any logical foundation. The Daily Mail article in particular made several assertions that have since been repeated on social media and referenced by other news outlets – for instance that there were six “leading oncologists” on board or that the paediatrician was a cancer specialist (this is untrue – see the Daily Mail claim [left] and the reported profile [right] below).
As a result, the contrast between credible information available and the detailed claims being circulated is extremely stark – many of the details and elements provided by the claims are not true.
Based on our research this seems to be the result of both inaccurate reporting and intentional fabrications to push a narrative. All we do know (at time of publication) is that of the 62 deceased, several were medical professionals, and a number of them were headed to an oncology-related event.
Therefore, we give the claim that the facts surrounding the crash are suspicious and indicative of a conspiracy to silence cancer doctors a rating of false.
Is there a cure for cancer?
This specific tragedy has been placed alongside other claims about cancer conspiracies by certain posters. The broader claim is that a large number of doctor deaths have occurred, and that these individuals were somehow connected to a cure for cancer.
However, the general consensus among Oncologists is that a single cure for cancer is unlikely. There are over 200 different types of cancer – with distinct characteristics that have different causes and require different treatments. While the lack of a single “cure” (where all traces of the disease are eliminated with no possibility of return) despite years of research and funding can seem frustrating to the layperson, there has been a marked increase in early detection and survival rates as a result of that continued Oncological research.
Claims which push conspiracies about cancer cures often neglect to acknowledge this – instead focusing on the cost of cancer treatments as a counterpoint to the “holistic” cancer treatments that have, according to them, been supressed by pharmaceutical companies. Numerous other fact-checks and articles refuting the cancer cure conspiracy also go further into the lack of solid arguments and disprovable narratives.
Claims which attempt to capitalise on the complexity of medical issues or to co-opt fresh tragedies where limited information is available are a dangerous genre of mis/disinformation and have the potential to hurt both the victims of the tragedy and audiences who develop misconceptions about serious medical conditions.
