Examining adherence to ASCO’s Language of Respect guidelines in urothelial carcinoma research

The ASCO Language of Respect (LoR) guidelines were developed to promote patient-centered language in scientific abstracts and presentations. Analysis of all urothelial carcinoma (UC) abstracts from the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting (n=118) found that 67.8% of abstracts contained at least one noncompliant statement, where 52.5%, 33.1%, and 0.8% had at least one statement with dehumanizing, blaming, or disrepectful language. In multivariable analysis, abstracts origination from a single country, those with character counts ≤ 2,470, and those with no reported funding source wer associated with higher odds of noncompliance. The authors conclude that a substantial proportion of UC abstracts failed to adhere to ASCO’s LoR guidelines, highlighting a gap in current scientific communication.