November 1, 2009 (Vol. 29, No. 19)
URL:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/understandingcancer
Rating:
Strong Points: Reader-friendly, accessible by a wide audience
Weak Points: None
Summary:
Cancer has sadly become a fixture in today’s society, and with its prevalence comes the medical vernacular: metastasis, angiogenesis, routine screenings, radiation therapies, and on, and on. If you find yourself getting lost in it all (and you’re not alone), be sure to take advantage of the National Cancer Institute’s “Understanding Cancer” series. There are 14 topics in the series, ranging from blood stem cell transplants to HPV vaccine, and each topic comes in the form of presentation slides and accompanying notes. For some of the topics, the powerpoint presentation or pdf can be downloaded. The information is accessible for anybody interested in learning more about cancer, from the general public, to science students, to scientists. The colorful, graphic-rich slides are both interesting and informative, shedding light on topics that you might often hear on the news, but you may not fully understand in the context of today’s medical climate.