Studies of cancer drugs often use terms that downplay the seriousness of adverse events. Bishal Gyawali and colleagues call for greater clarity and transparency The clinical trial report of ribociclib, a drug for breast cancer, mentions in its discussion that “Most patients had an acceptable adverse-event profile.”1 A report of a trial of liposomal irinotecan in pancreatic cancer states in the concluding paragraph that it “has a manageable and mostly reversible safety profile.”2 And a trial of tasquinimod in patients with prostate cancer reports “the tolerability was good overall.”3 All three of these studies were published in top medical journals. Naturally, readers would take these statements to be true. However, a look at the data for adverse events doesn’t paint as good a picture. In the first study, more than twice as many patients in the ribociclib arm as in the control arm experienced severe (grade 3 or higher) adverse events (271/334 v 108/330).1 The difference in treatment rel