The National Cancer Institute is the US government’s primary agency for cancer research and for educating the public about cancer, its causes, and ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer.
Strengths: Information on this Web site is comprehensive, up-to-date, and reviewed by cancer specialists. Presented in both English and Spanish, the site includes information about many cancer types that cannot be found on other Web sites. The patient version of the material is easy to understand, and the site also provides definitions of unfamiliar terms.
Bone Marrow Transplantation and Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation
This Q&A from the National Cancer Institute provides helpful answers to basic questions about bone marrow and stem cell transplants and their role in cancer treatment. Questions range from what are transplants and why are they used to treat cancer, to how donor cells are matched and how marrow is harvested for transplant. There also is information about the potential risks and complications associated with transplants. This Q&A is an excellent, concise source of information for those considering a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.
Cancer Information
The National Cancer Institute’s authoritative Web site offers the latest information about cancer and its treatment. Here, you will find comprehensive information for more than 150 types of cancer, from the most common to the very rare. For each cancer type, there is information about causes, treatment, screening, and testing. For the more common cancers, such as breast, colon, lung, prostate, and others, the site provides summaries of recent clinical trial results. Information for each type of cancer is presented in two formats — for patients and for health professionals — in both English and Spanish. The patient version, written in lay language, may be especially useful for those newly diagnosed with cancer. Patients who have become more familiar with cancer, or those with a medical background, may prefer the more comprehensive and extensively referenced professional version.
The information on the site is updated regularly. Within each cancer, there are links to related topics. You can also find fact sheets about Cancer Staging and Tumor Grade, both of which affect cancer treatment choices and a patient’s prognosis. The site includes information about newly approved cancer treatments, cancer statistics, and a dictionary of more than 4,000 cancer-related terms with easy-to-understand definitions.
Childhood Cancers (Cancer.gov)
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) provides comprehensive treatment information for more than 25 different childhood cancers, including those that are extremely rare.
Clinical Trials Database
The National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Trials database includes thousands of records of clinical trials that are actively recruiting patients. These include trials for cancer treatment, genetics, diagnosis, supportive care, screening, and prevention.You can search to locate clinical trials by type of cancer, stage of disease, type of treatment, location of trial, drug name, or a combination of these and other variables.You can also search using a more detailed form; both forms have help functions. The advanced search form allows you to do a more focused search, including trial phase, stage or subtype of cancer, protocol ID, hospital or institution, sponsor, trial investigators, and more.
This section also includes summaries that highlight recently released results from cancer clinical trials. The findings cited are significant enough that they are likely to influence patients’ medical care. There are also helpful educational materials about clinical trials: how they work, why they’re useful, patient care costs, and more.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
This information from the National Cancer Institute includes a Q&A on complementary and alternative medicine and descriptions of herbal and other alternative medicines. While this list is not extensive, each medicine listed includes a short overview that is cross-referenced with the more detailed Q&A section, including glossary definitions in pop-up windows for underlined words. There is also information about preclinical and clinical studies of each alternative medicine and adverse effects of these medicines. The summaries are provided in two formats — for patients and for health professionals. The health professional version includes a Levels of Evidence section that indicates its proven effectiveness in humans. You can also find links to other US government resources for complementary and alternative therapies.
Coping with Advanced Cancer
Patients facing terminal cancer often experience a range of emotions. This section of the National Cancer Institute’s Web site offers information about choices for end-of-life care for adult cancer patients. It provides resources for emotional support, such as how to talk to loved ones. It also contains practical resources, such as a Personal Affairs Worksheet, which patients can use to inventory their bank accounts, insurance, pension, mortgage, and credit card contact information for their families. The site is based on the most current information available and on interviews with patients, their families, and their caregivers.
Coping with Cancer: Supportive and Palliative Care
The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Web site includes peer-reviewed summaries from NCI’s comprehensive cancer database (PDQ) about managing cancer-related side effects and complications, including fatigue, pain, sleep disorders, nausea, and vomiting. The information in the summaries is based on new research advances, and it is reviewed regularly by editorial boards comprised of cancer specialists. The date on each summary indicates the dates it was posted, and last updated. The summaries are available in two formats — for patients and for health professionals. (Many of the summaries are also available in Spanish.) You may want to begin with the patient version, but the health professional version is more comprehensive and suitable for those more familiar with cancer. The health professional version also refers to key citations in the medical literature that link to published medical journal abstracts.
Drug Information Summaries
The National Cancer Institute’s Web site offers consumer-friendly information about certain drugs that are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat cancer or conditions related to cancer. For each drug, there is information about the type of cancer the drug has been approved to treat, the way the drug works, its safety and effectiveness, dosage, and adverse side effects. This section is an excellent resource for patients who want to find information about the newest cancer therapies available. There are links to the complete product labels and full prescribing information, and to the FDA’s Patient Information Sheet, lay language summaries of important information about the drugs.
Emotional Concerns
The National Cancer Institute’s Web site offers detailed information about emotional concerns related to cancer diagnosis and treatment, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and issues of spirituality.
Follow-Up Care
Understanding what follow-up care involves can help patients and their loved ones plan for the future. The National Cancer Institute’s Web site includes a Q&A on Follow-up Care that is geared to patients who have finished active treatment and are now preparing for the future.
Here you will find information about what follow-up care entails and why it is important. There is also a list of questions to ask your doctor about your follow-up care, such as how often to have routine checkups and what symptoms to watch for. There is information about what medical records you need to keep and a list of online resources that provide follow-up care guidelines for specific cancers.
