Great Diseases: Cancer

Your school or local public library is always a great place to start when looking for resources to search for science and health information. Ask your local librarian for help!

All of the following links are to public, free, full-text resources. You do not need to belong to, or have access to a library to search these resources or download the articles. You are also welcome to search Google Scholar, but be aware that you may not be able to access the full-text of many of the items you find.

General Science and Health Resources

Expert

• PubMed Central
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Google Scholar
• Drug Information Portal

Consumer Health

• MedlinePlus
• Healthfinder.gov
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Cancer Specific Resources

Expert

• National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines
• American Society of Clinical Oncology Guidelines
• CAM Cancer - CAM Summaries
• Pretty Darn Quick® Cancer Information Summaries: Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program: Cancer Statistics
• ClinicalTrials.gov

Consumer Health

• Cancer.net
• National Cancer Institute
• Cancer in Children Index
• KidsHealth Cancer Center
• Reliable Cancer Therapies
• National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Cancer Prevention and Treatment
• National Cancer Institute Drug Dictionary

Boston Public Library

The BPL pas for databases with full-text health information. To access these, you will need a BPL card and an electronic PIN. You can set these up at the BPL in Copley Square or any BPL Branch location.

You can see the list of electronic access resources they have from this web page. I recommend speaking with a librarian to get advice on which resources would be best for your particular topic, but you may want to try:

• Health & Wellness Resource Center
• Health Reference Center Academic
• Nursing Resource Center

Minuteman Library System

The MMLS also pays for specialized full-text resources. You will need proof of residency in any town with a library in the system (Newton, Somerville, Cambridge, and many more) in order to get a card with an access code on the back.

I recommend going to your specific library and speaking to a librarian, since some libraries have access to databases other libraries in the system do not. A brief list of some databases that all MMLS patrons can access include:

• Science in Context
• Nursing and Allied Health Collection Resource Center
• Health Reference Center Academic
• Health and Wellness Resource Center
• Expanded Academic ASAP

You can usually access these by going to the library homepage and finding the link for databases.