relative risks vrs odds ratios

Fireweed

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004767.html#more
This article is amusing but the concept is critical to understanding the impact of treatments on survival or recurrence. For example, a story on the impact of a drug which "reduces the risk of a new breast cancer by 50%" [odds ratio] in a specific population of survivors might be reporting a reduction from 6% to 3%, or 3% [relative risk].