National Cancer Institute website
Alan Meyer
often mention here is http://cancer.gov, sponsored by the U.S.
National Cancer Institute. I work as a computer programmer at
NCI in preparing data that goes up on the site, so I am perhaps
more than a little biased in its favor.
However, I do really think it is a good source of information.
It's a huge website with probably on the order of two hundred
people involved in maintaining it in one way or another,
including many leading experts on cancer.
The prostate cancer specific part starts at:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/prostate.
One document on the site that I think is particularly valuable
is:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/prostate/healthprofessional
It's NCI's summary of the "state-of-the-art" in prostate cancer
treatment, written for health professionals. It's based on a
comprehensive review of ALL of the scientific literature on
cancer. They have a fair number of people who read every new
article about cancer in every leading medical journal, every
month. Articles that look important are then routed to members
of an international board of leading cancer specialists, about
half researchers and half clinicians, who review the articles and
make any changes in recommendations based on them, including
recommendations for treatment and recommendations for important
articles to read.
The clinical trials database is very extensive and lists hundreds
of experimental trials (most only in North America) with
relatively up-to-date information about sites, contacts, and
trial status. There are also good search capabilities for
finding trials by cancer type and stage, treatment modality, and
geographic proximity. It's the same list as of trials as found
at http://clinicaltrials.gov, but limited to cancer and with a
different type of search engine that may be better for some kinds
of searches. Both sites contain all cancer trials registered
with the U.S. government - which includes most reputable trials.
There is also extensive information about statistics, prevention,
research, and many specific topics from depression to treatment
side effects.
There are some problems using the site. One is that it is about
all kinds of cancer, not just prostate cancer, so some of the
information you will find on radiation, chemotherapy, etc., is
not PCa specific.
Another problem from my personal perspective is that, as a
government sponsored website, it is forced to take a neutral tone
with regard to advice to patients. It will never say, "If you
experience this, do that!" It will also never say, "If your
doctor says this, fire him and find another doctor!"
Fortunately, we have this newsgroup and other websites to provide
that kind of advice :-)
Still, I do recommend that people have a look at it. If nothing
else, I believe it to have the very best documented information
available on the web. Every word in the treatment summary linked
above is pored over by about 20 PhDs and MDs, and is meticulously
documented with citations to carefully vetted published research.
Alan