Educating yourself about cancer is important to your overall treatment and its success. The more you know about cancer, the better your chances of obtaining the best possible care. The Internet offers a wealth of information about cancer and its treatment, yet you cannot always rely on the accuracy of the information posted on some Web sites. To help you get accurate, up-to-date information about cancer from the Internet, here are some primary sites that provide reliable and current knowledge and resources:
1. The National Cancer Institute is one of the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, that provides information on various types of cancer, state-of-the-art cancer treatments, clinical trials for cancer patients, cancer statistics, and cancer research. This site also provides the PDQ Clinical Trial Database, which includes the most comprehensive registry of clinical trials of cancer treatments in the world (see About Clinical Trials, page 100). The registry contains information about more than 4,000 trials that are currently accepting patients and more than 15,000 completed or closed trials, and it includes written accounts of actual patients www.cancer.gov.
The trials involve cancer diagnosis, treatments, genetics, screening, prevention, and supportive care. The National Cancer Institute supports many of the trials listed, but the database also contains clinical trials sponsored by medical centers, drug companies, and other organizations around the world.
2. The American Cancer Society gives detailed information about a wide variety of cancers and their diagnosis, staging, treatments, and complimentary and alternative therapies. Each cancer entry also includes some questions you can ask your doctor about your cancer. The site provides other sources of information as well, such as books on cancer-related topics, free brochures from the American Cancer Society, and related Web sites (www.cancer.org).
3. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network is an association of cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute as centers of excellence. It provides comprehensive, patient-oriented information on common cancers, such as bladder, breast, lung, ovarian, and prostate cancers. The Network's treatment guidelines for patients include so-called decision trees that show the steps involved in the diagnosis and treatment of these cancers in brief. The site also offers information on clinical trials for cancer, help in finding a physician at one of the member cancer centers, and links to other cancer resources (www.nccn.org).
4. American Society of Clinical Oncology (www.asco.org) is a non-profit organization of health-care professionals with the goals of improving cancer care, preventing cancer, and ensuring that all patients with cancer receive care of the highest quality. The Society maintains a Web site for cancer patients (www.cancer.net).
5. American Society for Hematology is a professional organization of hematologists and the group is dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood, bone marrow, and the immunologic, hemostatic and vascular systems, by promoting research, clinical care, education, training, and advocacy in the field of hematology. This site is provided by ASH for patients with blood diseases and related disorders (www.hematology.org/patients/.
6. OncoLink is a service of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania that offers information and resources on types of cancer, cancer treatment, coping with cancer, matching patients with clinical trials, cancer news, access to a cancer expert for answers to questions about cancer, and access to information from the OncoLink library of books and journals (www.oncolink.org).
7. Oncology Nursing Society (www.ons.org) is a professional organization of registered nurses and other health professionals dedicated to excellence in patient care, education, and research in oncology nursing. The Web site provides patient education information on the prevention, detection, treatment, and symptoms of cancer and patient-support resources.
8. Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (www.sgo.org) is a national medical specialty society of physicians trained in the comprehensive management of women with female reproductive cancers. The Web site provides links to resources for women.
9. MedlinePlus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, provides information about a variety of cancers as well as clinical trials, cancer in children, and a series of articles on understanding cancer (www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/cancers.html).
10. American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (www.asrto.org) is a medical society for radiation oncologists and other members of the radiation therapy team. ASTRO's Web site has a link to a patient information site (www.rtanswers.org) created by physicians and other radiation therapy professionals to answer questions about radiation treatment.