ABLEnews Resource [The following file may be freq'd as CAFAQ.* from 1:109/909 and other BBS's that carry the ABLEFiles Distribution Network (AFDN). Please allow a few days for processing.] Cancer: Just the FAQs Answer to a Frequently-Asked Question (FAQ): What online sources of information are available about cancer? 1. CancerNet. CancerNet is by far the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of information about cancer. It is maintained by the (United States) National Cancer Institute. Included in this database is a well-maintained list of other information sources, such as MEDLINE, so for most people this is THE place to start. Sources of information that are listed in CancerNet are (usually) not repeated in this FAQ. Send e-mail to: cancernet@icicb.nci.nih.gov with no subject, and the word "help" as the message. They will send you a message explaining how to use the system. They can also be reached by calling the voice line: 1-800-4CANCER. For those without online access, they can send out brochures and FAX'es. CancerNet is available through voice phone, traditional mail, FAX, e-mail, gopher, ftp, and World Wide Web. Contact CancerNet via e-mail or voice phone for current access instructions. 2. Commercial online services. Many online services have forums for people to discuss cancer. CompuServe's forum (GO CANCER) has many friendly people there who are either cancer patients or medical professionals. Prodigy is said to have a good Medical Bulletin Board, with several different subjects under the Cancer topic, including a prostate cancer group. At the time this FAQ was updated, no one has commented on the quality of the cancer forums on other online services, but such comments would be welcome. To start an account, contact the service of your choice. Each service can be contacted by voice through an 800 number. Call the 800 directory service (voice) at 800-555-1212 for the 800 number of the service you would like to try. Most services offer free or reduced-cost service for the first month of use. You might want to check recent computer-related magazines for special offers and coupons. 3. Gopher and WWW To get the most current Gopher/World Wide Web addresses of interest, it's best to just get on and start searching. To help you get started, here's a list of servers that others have found useful. The list may not be up to date, but it should provide some good starting points. If you don't know what Gopher and WWW are, look for some FAQ's in the new users newsgroups or the gopher/WWW newsgroups, or contact your local help desk or system administrator. gopher://gopher.nih.gov - Cancernet gopher http://www.nih.gov/ - NIH WWW server http://billings.nlm.nih.gov/welcome.html - National Library of Medicine http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/ - OncoLink, from the U. of Pennsylvania gopher://cancer.med.upenn.edu:80 - OncoLink, via gopher gopher://utmdacc.uth.tmc.edu - M.D.Anderson (cancer center) gopher://gopher.dfci.harvard.edu - Dana-Farber (cancer center) gopher://bigmac.mskcc.org - Sloan-Kettering (cancer center) gopher://gopher.ncc.go.jp/ - National Cancer Center Tokyo gopher://istge.ist.unige.it - IST (Nat Inst for Cancer Research) (Italy) gopher://yaleinfo.yale.edu:7000/11/Biomed - Yale Medical Center gopher://serversun.mdv.gwdg.de/ - GWDG Goettingen gopher://med-gopher.stanford.edu/ - Stanford medical center http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ - HyperDOC at US National Library of Medicine ftp://ftp.sura.net/pub/nic/ - Health sciences resources list gopher://weeds.mgh.harvard.edu/ - Global Biological Information Servers at Harvard - also by topic. 4. The FDA BBS. For information on specific drugs, you might try the FDA BBS (U. S. Food and Drug Administration's Bulletin Board System). Using the telnet facility, telnet to "fdabbs.fda.gov", and login as "bbs". Technical Support is available for the FDA BBS System from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. EST Monday through Friday. For support, contact the Parklawn Computer Center (PCC) at (301)443-7318. If you are looking for a specific report or article, contact the FDA Press Office at (301)443-3285. 5. Local BBS systems. (From Steve King, sking@holonet.net, steve.king@fatal.com) Doug MacLean and I host the Cancer Recovery Conference on the RIME BBS net. We seem to have no medical professionals in the conference to answer technical questions, but we do provide peer support. I've been in remission for six years and Doug is still going through treatment. To access our conference you need to call a BBS that carries the RIME BBS network, which is similar to FidoNet. If the BBS doesn't carry the Cancer Recovery Conference, ask the Sysop if he/she will subscribe to it. Most Sysops are quite willing to add conferences at their callers request, particularly support conferences such as this one. 6. Online library catalogs (to help find books). There are many good (and some awful) books about cancer and cancer-related issues. You local library may have its catalog online, especially if it's a University-related library. 7. Net News In case this FAQ was forwarded to you by e-mail, you might want to know that it is posted every week or so on the news groups "sci.med", and "alt.support.cancer". These are both good newsgroups for cancer information and support. The FAQ is also posted on "news.answers", a group for FAQ's. 8. The NYU BBS for Brain Tumor Support and Research. From: al.musella@woodybbs.com (Al Musella) The head of Neurosurgery at NYU set up a commercial bbs system for brain tumor support and research. It is called: Brain tumor on-line. For information, call voice: 800-785-3312. It is pretty new, and not many people are on it yet, but there are a few doctors from NYU and the Mayo clinic - so it is a good source of info if you have a brain tumor. 9. Other FAQ's. From: Steve Dunn (snydere@ucsub.Colorado.EDU) I have an FAQ on new developments in breast cancer. This is definitely not a complete guide to breast cancer, rather it is a compilation of things I happen to have run across on the subject that I'd want to know about if I had breast cancer. I also have FAQ's on good general books on cancer I and on online information sources. I also have an FAQ on books on alternative cancer therapies. All available by email on request. 10. OncoLink OncoLink - The University of Pennsylvania Multimedia Oncology Resource. We would like to announce "OncoLink", a WWW-server and gopher server oriented to CANCER. This resource is directed to physicians, health care personnel, social workers, patients and their supporters. THIS RESOURCE CAN BE REACHED AT: cancer.med.upenn.edu This cancer information server is currently under development, with changes made daily. Gopher can reach this resource using Port 80. With a WWW-client (e.g. Mosaic), use: http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/ With a gopher client (e.g. gopher) use: gopher cancer.med.upenn.edu 80 The current subject headings are: medical oncology gynecologic oncology radiation oncology pediatric oncology surgical oncology medical physics *psychosocial support for oncology patients & families **** links to other oncology centers in the world We shall be exploring interactive BBS and other means of disseminating cancer information throughout the world on the Internet. The maintainer of this resource can be contacted at: BUHLE@XRT.UPENN.EDU Dr. E. Loren Buhle, Jr. INTERNET: BUHLE@XRT.UPENN.EDU University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Phone: 215-662-3084 Rm 440A, 3401 Walnut St. Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228 FAX: 215-349-5978 11. The Virtual Hospital From: sandro@lhc.nlm.nih.gov (Michael D'Alessandro, M.D.) Date: 16 Mar 1994 17:44:24 GMT The Virtual Hospital: A New Paradigm for Electronic Publishing in the Health Sciences The Virtual Hospital (VH) is a continuously updated medical multimedia database stored on computers and accessed through high-speed computer networks 24 hours a day. The VH will provide invaluable patient care support and distance learning to health science practitioners. The VH's information may be used to answer patient care questions, thus putting the latest medical information at practitioners' fingertips. This same information may be used for continuing medical education (CME); delivering CME to practitioners' offices and homes at a convenient time and location. The VH's medical media is stored in a multimedia database on a file server (storage computer) linked to the Internet, the data superhighway of today. The media is organized into medical multimedia textbooks (MMTBs). A MMTB is a multimedia software program that patterns its user interface after a printed textbook but incorporates functions beyond those of a printed textbook. The MMTB provides free text searching and the ability to play video and audio clips. The multimedia database is organized using the World Wide Web (WWW) software technology. The WWW facilitates the acquisition, storage, and organization of information on the Internet. WWW file servers organize and store information in a coherent knowledge structure or "web," while WWW clients, available for all major personal computers, are the tools that the user employs to access the information that it contains. The VH will contain MMTBs, diagnostic algorithms, patient simulations, teaching files, historical information, and patient instructional and CME materials. Information for the VH is being gathered from lectures, teaching conferences and grand rounds in all of our Health Science Colleges. The VH is currently undergoing initial loading and proofing of content, and will be fully operational in the next 6 months. In the interim, there is already a large amount of useful medical information within it, so please stop by and browse. The Virtual Hospital is a service of the Electric Differential Multimedia Lab in the Department of Radiology in the University of Iowa College of Medicine. The URL for the Virtual Hospital is: http://vh.radiology.uiowa.edu/ Michael D'Alessandro, M.D., Department of Radiology, The Children's Hospital, Boston Email: sandro@lhc.nlm.nih.gov 13. Shareware Programs via FTP From: hoang@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (My Khanh Hoang) Date: 17 May 1994 08:02:51 GMT The following ftp site: ftp.cica.indiana.edu has several shareware programs that may be helpful. One particular relevant program is Reduce Cancer Risk in pub/pc/win3/misc. 14. The Breast Cancer Information Clearinghouse The Breast Cancer Information Clearinghouse is an Internet accessible resource for breast cancer patients and their families. It is our vision that the Breast Cancer Information Clearinghouse will be a repository for all current information about breast cancer which will allow patients, survivors and advocates to do 'one stop shopping' for information about this disease. It is also our goal that an on-line survivors network can be established which will allow patients to communicate with someone who has experienced the same or a similar prognosis and treatment. The BCIC is accessible via gopher at nysernet.org, or through WWW at http://nysernet.org/ e-mail any comments or suggestions to tmdamon@nysernet.org Please contribute to the FAQ! If you have a source of online information about cancer that is NOT listed above, AND it is NOT listed within any of the above sources (such as CancerNet), then please contact the original poster of this message and tell them about it. We are eager to make this list as comprehensive and up-to-date as possible. Good luck, God bless you, and KEEP FIGHTING. Informed, motivated patients live longer! (end of the Cancer FAQ) [with a tip of our ABLEnews' hat to Will Dye (willdye@helios.unl.edu) on One World BBS (1:102/129.1) As One World carries ABLEnews, you can write Will on our echo.] A Fidonet-backbone echo featuring disability/medical news and information, ABLEnews is carried by more than 260 BBSs in the US, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Greece, and Sweden. The echo, available from Fidonet and Planet Connect, is gated to the ADANet, FamilyNet, and World Message Exchange networks. 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