Researching ‘Cancer’ & Research in Cancer
At this stage of your cancer-free journey, you would have already done the basic Google search or even a Google Scholar search but hopefully by now, you should be seeking out specific information that is primarily evidence-based (or at least, begin to weigh up information to decide on whether a certain investigation/treatment may be worth pursing) and specific to the cancer of interest. This is not to say that you need to suddenly acquire the knowledge of a scientist or become the next leading cancer expert (although you may actually end up knowing more about some aspects of the cancer you have researched than your oncologist). Only to say that it is important to have some scientific understanding of how your body works (see What is Cancer?) and to be able to have a discussion over what potential investigations/treatments could be considered with the doctor.
To do this, a good starting point would be to use PubMed, Cochrane and / or UpToDate. Whilst the contents of your search results will suddenly become highly scientific/medical, to be able to understand what investigation/treatment modalities are around, to have a feel of the evidence for or against a certain treatment, or even just having an awareness of what options are available can potentially be a game-changer in terms of how you approach the next step of your journey. Clearly, it is your doctor’s job to guide and inform you of the various options available and explain things in simple terms but I think it is equally important for you to play an active role. After all, it is none other than your own health that is at stake here and the ultimate responsibility lies with you in deciding what actions to take.
Interesting Videos in Cancer Research
A lot of cutting edge cancer research is taking place around the world. Highly respected journals (with high impact factors) include for example, Nature, Cell, Science, The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, etc. Here we highlight a few examples of perhaps less conventional but interesting approaches to combating cancer. Keeping an open mind is what is crucial to developing new avenues of research that can potentially lead to new discoveries.
Latest Advances in Cancer… >> The Cancer Pathway (NHS) I Investigations I Cancer Treatments I Clinical Trials