Cancer

Last update: 20 June 2008,
by Maureen Bell

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

Australian Prostate Navigator
Links to prostate cancer resources.

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

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 Cervical Screening Program - Publications
From the Population Health Division, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. There are a number of reports available at this site.

National Health Priority Area: Cancer
From the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing.

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 for 2004
Also includes statistics for previous years.

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

Below are links to the BMJ's collections of free full text articles on cancer.

bmj.com Collected Resources : Cancer: breast

bmj.com Collected Resources : Cancer: gastroenterological

bmj.com Collected Resources : Cancer: gynecological

bmj.com Collected Resources : Cancer: lung

bmj.com Collected Resources : Cancer: other

bmj.com Collected Resources : Cancer: prostate

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 (Bandolier Library)
Bandolier is a print and Internet journal about health care, using evidence-based medicine techniques to provide advice about particular treatments or diseases for healthcare professionals and consumers.

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 Specialist Library
One of a collection of specialist libraries for the National electronic Library for Health (NeLH), the CSL is designed to provide useful and reliable information to everyone who is faced with having to make decisions about cancer - clinical practitioners, patients and policy makers.

Cancer Statistics in Japan
From the Japanese National Cancer Center.

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). Its resources include

1. Incidence data collected by cancer registries worldwide : CI5 I-VIII (Cancer Incidence in Five Continents, Vol. I to VIII) study.
2. The data on incidence and survival of children and adolescents in Europe (ACCIS project)
3. Mortality data extracted from the World Health Organization (WHO) databank.
4. The most recent estimates of the cancer incidence, mortality and prevalence, by sex and cancer site, for all the countries of the world (GLOBOCAN 2002).

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.

Hardin MD : Cancer
A list of web directories in this area.

IARC publications series
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.

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

NCI Cancer Spectrum
JNCI Cancer Spectrum is described as a "knowledge environment centered around the Journal of the National Cancer Institute". It includes cancer statistics, news, links, databases, and a dictionary.

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

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

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.

The Unequal Burden of Cancer: An Assessment of NIH Research and Programs for Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved
M. Alfred Haynes and Brian D. Smedley, Editors; Committee on Cancer Research Among Minorities and the Medically Underserved, Institute of Medicine. Washington D.C., National Academy Press, 1999.