Ed Everest's Guide to the World's Best Cancer Websites
The home page address is www.bestcancersites.comBEST ESOPHAGEAL CANCER WEBSITES
The address of this page is www.bestcancersites.com/esophagealThis is a summary of the best websites I could find around the world for esophageal cancer, both for general information (symptoms, treatment options, research, etc) and for forums (message or discussion boards) and other kinds of support. And for those living in Australia there is information about Australian websites here.
Cathy's EC Café is an excellent volunteer-run website devoted to
esophageal cancer. Its address is www.eccafe.org. When you go to their home page, find and click on the link 'Contents' to see what they offer - much of the site content has no direct link to it from the home page.A central feature of Cathy's EC Café is a mailing list called the EC-Group, hosted by the Association of Cancer Online Resources (ACOR), where people involved with esophageal cancer can share information and support through communal emailing. You can find the mailing list by visiting the home page of ACOR at www.acor.org and clicking on the 'Mailing List' link, or by going to this direct link http://listserv.acor.org/archives/ec-group.html . When I checked on 16th July 2006 this mailing list had 1758subscribers which is a large number for a cancer-related mailing list.
For information about symptoms, diagnosis and treatments for esophageal cancer I recommend you go to the following sources.
The American Cancer Society website - on their home page, click on the link "Choose a cancer topic" and find and click on Esophagus Cancer in the alphabetical list that displays and then click on Go.
The website (called Oncolink) of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania is another good source of information on esophageal cancer and its treatments - you can go to this direct link www.oncolink.com/types/article.cfm?c=5&s=12&ss=769&id=9465 .
Another valuable source of information is the website of the USA Government's National Cancer Institute at www.cancer.gov . To locate the section on esophageal cancer, click on this link www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopics/types/esophageal/. Alternatively, go to their home page, find the heading 'Types of Cancer' and click on the link 'A to Z List of Cancers' and hunt down Esophageal Cancer in the alphabetical list.
If you have an involvement with Barrett's Esophagus then I recommend visiting the Johns Hopkins Barrett's Esophagus website at http://pathology2.jhu.edu/beweb where you will find plenty of information about this condition and its treatment.
What is Barrett's Esophagus? "Long-term irritation can increase the risk of esophageal cancer. Tissues at the bottom of the esophagus can become irritated if stomach acid frequently "backs up" into the esophagus -- a problem called gastric reflux. Over time, cells in the irritated part of the esophagus may change and begin to resemble the cells that line the stomach. This condition, known as Barrett's esophagus, is a premalignant condition that may develop into adenocarcinoma of the esophagus" - a quote from the National Cancer Institute website.
If you are looking for an active forum (message or discussion board) on eshopageal cancer I suggest going to the forum on the Johns Hopkins Barrett's Esophagus website. The direct link to it is http://pathology.jhu.edu/beweb_chat .
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is “an alliance of 19 of the world's leading cancer centers, ... an authoritative source of information to help patients and health professionals make informed decisions about cancer care. Through the collective expertise of its member institutions, the NCCN develops, updates, and disseminates a complete library of clinical practice guidelines. These guidelines are the standard for clinical policy in oncology” - (quoted from their website). If you want to take a role in planning your course of treatment in consultation with your medical health providers then you may find these guidelines valuable.
A physician-friendly version of the NCCN guidelines for esophageal cancer can be found by going to this webpage www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/default.asp, and a patient-friendly version may in the future be prepared in collaboration with the American Cancer Society and a link to it posted here:
www.nccn.org/patients/patient_gls.aspIf you want to delve deeper into any aspect of esophageal cancer, a good source of information is Medlineplus at www.medlineplus.gov. It's a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health and it’s a big well-organised and easily searchable site. The link to the section on cancers is www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/cancers.html and the link to their section on esophageal cancer is www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/esophagealcancer.html.
The American Cancer Society, a voluntary organisation, runs one of the most comprehensive websites on cancer and cancer-related matters on the net. Their address is www.cancer.org. As well as the specific information on esphageal cancer I mentioned above, their website has many other resources for those involved with cancer so it's well worth browsing their site for additional information and support that may be relevant to your situation.
Cancercare is a large USA-based organisation "that provides free, professional support services for anyone affected by cancer." On their website at www.cancercare.org you can find some information resources, advice on such matters as financial assistance, and counseling services (online, telephone and face-to-face). There are also some online support groups or forums.
NORD - the National Organisation for Rare Disorders - on their website at www.rarediseases.org has a database of rare disorders including many rare cancers. The database gives a list of alternative names for each disorder, some basic information about the disorder, and a list of organisations related to that disorder.
The website RxList at www.rxlist.com - self-described as “The Internet Drug Index providing fast, reliable information to both the consumer and the medical professional” - has information about hundreds of medicinal drugs and also active forums or discussion boards on the more popular drugs as well as forums for discussing less popular drugs and alternative therapies. The link to their forums index page is www.rxlist.com/rxboard.htm.
There are links to lymphedema websites on this page www.bestcancersites.com/lymphedema (and you can use your back button to return here).
If you have concerns about fertility in relation to cancer and its treatment, go to this page www.bestcancersites.com/fertility for links to websites with information and support on fertility issues (and you can use your back button to return to this page).
A good website for finding clinical trials relating to any type of cancer is the USA Government’s National Cancer Institute site at www.cancer.gov - go to their home page and click on the link Clinical Trials, or click on this direct link www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials.
There’s another USA Government website called ClinicalTrials.gov at www.clinicaltrials.gov where you can search for trials. “ClinicalTrials.gov offers up-to-date information for locating federally and privately supported clinical trials for a wide range of diseases and conditions” and “ClinicalTrials.gov currently contains approximately 12,600 clinical studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, other federal agencies, and private industry. Studies listed in the database are conducted in all 50 States and in over 100 countries. ClinicalTrials.gov receives over 4 million page views per month and hosts approximately 17,000 visitors daily.”
I suggest starting your search for clinical trials with the National Cancer Institute site at www.cancer.gov and then trying the ClinicalTrials.gov site. I don't know if ClinicalTrials.gov includes the same database as the NCI site but it doesn’t use the same search form so it might turn up something different anyway. Both sites include trials around the world as well as those in the USA.
You could also try the “American Cancer Society /EmergingMed Clinical Trials Matching Service ... This free Clinical Trial Matching and Referral Service is made available to American Cancer Society visitors through a collaboration with EmergingMed. ... Fill out one questionnaire and within seconds you'll know if your profile matches any clinical trials in our system. The EmergingMed database contains more than 3,000 clinical trials for treatment, prevention and early detection of cancer.” Look for the link to clinical trials on the home page of the American Cancer Society or try this direct link http://clinicaltrials.cancer.org .
There are links to nutrition and excercise guidelines on this webpage nutrition and excercise guidelines.
For anyone considering trying an alternative treatment for cancer (one that is not mainstream medicine and scientifically demonstrated to be safe and beneficial) the website Quackwatch has a very good section on their site called “A Special Message for Cancer Patients Seeking "Alternative" Treatments”. It will help you decide whether an alternative treatment you are considering is safe and might be beneficial in some way, or whether it might be unsafe and/or fraudulent. The direct link is www.quackwatch.org/00AboutQuackwatch/altseek.html or you can find the link on their home page at www.quackwatch.org.
The American Cancer Society website has a valuable section called "Complementary and Alternative Therapies". It's buried deep in their website and difficult to find - there's no link to it from their home page. Try this direct link www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/ETO_5.asp?sitearea=ETO or else put the word alternative into the search window on the home page and look for a link to the section in the search results. If you're thinking of trying a specific alternative or complimentary treatment you've come across on the internet or elsewhere you may find information about it in this section.
Another website that discusses the subject of alternative treatments in some detail is the website of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at www.nccam.nih.gov.
The American Cancer Society has a very good information page giving advice on how to use the internet for finding information on cancer, and how to determine if that information is reliable. The direct link to it is Cancer Information on the Internet.
More suggestions please
If you know of any other good esophageal cancer websites large or small, or active forums (message or discussion boards), or good mailing lists on esophageal cancer you would like to see added to this page, or you find any errors or broken links, please send me an email ateverest@bestcancersites.com.
Ed Everest, Adelaide, Australia
Page updated 8th September 2006
Australian Esophageal Cancer Websites
There do not appear to be any websites based in Australia devoted to esophageal cancer.
There are annotated links to Australian general cancer websites on this webpage Australian general cancer websites (it opens in a new window). Please do check it out - you'll find websites listed there with a wide variety of information relevant to Australia (including lists of support groups and treatment centres) that you won't find on the websites described above.More suggestions please
If you know of any other good esophageal cancer websites large or small, or active forums (message or discussion boards), or good mailing lists on esophageal cancer you would like to see added to this page, or you find any errors or broken links, please send me an email ateverest@bestcancersites.com.
Ed Everest, Adelaide, Australia
Page updated 8th September 2006
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