AFTER CANCER: INFORMATION ABOUT CANCER
How Do I Keep Up with Advances Related to My Type of Cancer?
If you feel comfortable reviewing medical information, call the Cancer Information Service to obtain the latest information about your type of cancer. The service has access to medical databases and the Internet.
Read the science and health sections of various newspapers and magazines. However, be careful, because sometimes the reporting is inaccurate or misleading. Subscribe to newsletters or journals for cancer survivors. Be sure to differentiate advertising from reporting.
At your checkups review any questions or new findings from your readings. Ask your doctor whether any new development or information related to your cancer situation has appeared since your last visit. It will be impossible for your doctor to remember what you may have reviewed at prior visits, so repeat the last “news” you had been told and then see whether anything new has developed since then.
How Do I Know Whether the Articles I Read in the Newspapers and Magazines Are Valuable for Me?
Cancer issues make good news. You will see many articles having to do with your cancer—the risks, the incidence, new treatments. Some questions to consider when reading include the following:
•Was the work done at a reputable cancer center?
•Was the work done in the test tube, with animals, or with humans? You cannot draw any conclusions about your situation on the basis of test tube or animal studies.
•Was the work double-blind placebo-controlled? In double-blind placebo-controlled studies neither the patients nor the researchers know who was getting real treatment and who was getting a placebo (a substance having no medicinal value, such as a sugar pill). These studies, in general, give more reliable results.
•Was the work subsidized by an impartial source, such as the National Health and Medical Research Council, or by a drug company with a vested interest?
•Was the treatment being recommended by an impartial scientist or by a potentially partial party, such as a drug company?
If something looks interesting or important to you,
•share the information with your oncology nurse or doctor, and have him or her get back to you about it
•call the Cancer Information Service for advice or more information about the news item
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Tags: Cancer