Cancer

Last update: 25 June 2009

Searching Medline

Remember that Medline has a Thesaurus of terms - MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), a controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in Medline. MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information where authors may use different terminology for the same concepts.

You will find material on cancer in Medline, but you will need to be aware of the thesaurus (MeSH) terms used to search for topics in this area. Medline does not use the word "cancer" in its list of terms. You will need to search the word "neoplasms". This term has an extensive number of more specific terms associated with it, and you can see these listed in the MeSH database

MeSH - Neoplasms List

Many topics in MeSH have hierarchies of more specific subcategories or related terms. The indentations in the lists reflect the structure of the hierarchy, and the + signs at the end of terms indicate that there is a further hierarchy of terms not displayed here. Any of these terms can be searched individually, or you can "explode" terms to search sections of the list. For example "exploding" Neoplasms by Site would retrieve articles on cancers in all the sites listed, from Abdominal Neoplasms to Urinogenital Neoplasms, and all of their subcategories indicated by the presence of a + sign.

When you search for subjects using MeSH terms from the Medline thesaurus you will also have the option of appending subheadings to narrow the focus of your search.

For a list of the abbreviations used for subheadings in PubMed click here

PubMed Formulation

Below is a method of searching the mortality from Respiratory Tract Neoplasms (a subset of Thoracic Neoplasms which appears in the list of Neoplasms by Site)

respiratory tract neoplasms/mo[majr] AND english[lang]

This search strategy uses the subheading "mortality", which is abbreviated to "mo", associated with cancers of the respiratory tract. The section in the square brackets includes majr - which focuses the search on articles where the subject is a major issue in the article. The search is then limited to articles in English or with English abstracts.

PubMed's default setting is to "explode" all terms, and so this search will include the subcategories of respiratory tract neoplasms listed below.

Bronchial Neoplasms
Lung Neoplasms
Carcinoma, Bronchogenic
Coin Lesion, Pulmonary
Pancoast's Syndrome
Pulmonary Blastoma
Pleural Neoplasms
Pleural Effusion, Malignant
Tracheal Neoplasms

Click here to see how it works. PubMed Search .

PubMed also has a number of subsets which allow searches to be limited by subject. One of these is a cancer subset. You simply create your search strategy, and add the subset at the end. For example

Occupational Exposure AND cancer[sb]

Australian Sources

Cancer (AIHW)
This is the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's cancer portal, giving access to up to date information on publications and programmes.

Cancer (HealthInsite)
HealthInsite is an initiative funded by the Australian Department of Health and Ageing, to provide easy access to quality health information.

Cancer Australia - Publications
Cancer Australia is a national government agency.

Cancer Council South Australia - Centre for cancer research - statistics
Publications containing statistical information on cancer incidence in South Australia.

Cancerscreening.gov.au
This page, from the Commonwealth Government, provides links to the screening programmes for breast cancer, cervical cancer, and bowel cancer.

eMJA: Articles on Oncology
From the Medical Journal of Australia.

Health Report - Cancer
Health Report - Cancer - Breast
Health Report - Cancer - Cervical and Vulval
Health Report - Cancer - Prostate
Health Report - Cancer - Skin
Transcripts from Radio National's Health Report, with Norman Swan.

National Health Priority Area: Cancer Control
From the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare. Links to publications are available on this page

South Australian Cancer Registry
This site gives access to the full text of reports on the epidemiology of cancer in South Australia.

Overseas Sources

American Cancer Society. Statistics
Current cancer statistics. Also includes statistics for previous years.

American Institute for Cancer Research - Diet and Cancer
Information for the public on diet and cancer prevention.

Cancer
From the Department of Health in the UK. Information, policy documents and advice for healthcare professionals involved in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of all types of cancer.

Cancer: A methodological approach for studying the link between cancer and the environment (2005)
This document presents the results of work of the expert group convened by INSERM (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale) through the collective expert evaluation procedure to answer the questions raised by the Agence française de sécurité sanitaire environnementale (AFSSE; the French Agency for Environmental Safety and Health).

Cancer Mortality Maps & Graphs
From the National Cancer Institute in the United States, this site provides data on cancer death rates for the time period 1950-1994 for more than 40 cancers. It includes interactive cancer mortality charts and graphs.

Cancer Research UK : CancerStats
From the Cancer Research Campaign in the U.K.

Cancer.gov - Cancer Information
From the National Cancer Institute in the United States. The site includes a dictionary of terms associated with cancer and its treatment.

Cancer.gov - Statistics
From the National Cancer Institute in the United States. Statistics including U.S. Racial/Ethnic cancer patterns.

CANCERMondial Statistical Information System
This website provides access to information on the occurrence of cancer world-wide held by the Descriptive Epidemiology Group (DEP) of IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer).

CDC | Cancer Prevention and Control
Resources from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, including statistical reports on incidence.

Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control. Cancer. Publications
A range of reports, all available online from Health Canada.

Below are links to CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) collections of free full text articles on cancer.

IARC Publications - PDFs online
The International Agency for Research on Cancer is part of the World Health Organization

ISD Cancer Information Programme
Information on cancer incidence, mortality, survival, screening, clinical trials, cancer statistics, and cancer registration from the Information and Statistics Division, National Health Services Scotland.

MedlinePlus: Cancers Topics
MEDLINEplus is the National Library of Medicine's consumer health information portal. Lists of links are evaluated/reviewed/quality-filtered.

Mesothelioma Resource Center
The Mesothelioma Resource Center is a resource for patients and their families. Information on this site is gathered from leading mesothelioma authorities.

The National Academies Press: Topic Health and Medicine : Diseases - Cancer
Free monographs from the National Academies Press in the United States.

National Center for Health Statistics - FASTATS - Cancer
United States cancer statistics.

NHS Evidence - Cancer
NHS Evidence - cancer aims to provide high quality, evidence-based information on all of the aspects of cancer. This site is aimed at health professionals with an interest in cancer.

OncoLink: A University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center Resource
OncoLink is the first multimedia oncology information resource placed on the Internet. It is maintained by the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, and the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center which has sanctioned its use and development. The information contained in its searchable database is intended for both professional and consumer use.

Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)
From the National Cancer Institute in the United States, this program is the most authoritative source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States. Data can be searched by cancer site.