This guide provides practical advice to employers and employees on how to prevent or minimise the risks to health associated with handling cytotoxic drugs and related waste, including their preparation, administration, handling, storage, movement and disposal, and spills management, within health care establishments and community settings.

It aims to assist in the development and implementation of safe work systems and risk control procedures.

This document ((NIH Publication No. 92-2621) reviews the routes through which exposure may occur and presents recommendations for the safe handling of parenteral cytotoxic drugs by pharmacists, nurses, physicians and other personnel who participate in the preparation and administration of these drugs to patients.

These guidelines apply in any setting where cytotoxic drugs are prepared - including pharmacies, nursing units, clinics, physicians' offices and the home health care environment.

This program is designed to provide nurses with fundamental and practical knowledge about cancer. The goals of this program are to strengthen the knowledge of nurses who are new to the cancer specialty, and to serve as a review and teaching tool for practicing oncology nurses.

PDFs of the ten basic cancer topics can be downloaded:

• Cancer terminology
• Cancer etiology
• Early warning signs
• Cellular structure and function
• Cell cycle and cancer cell properties
• Types of tissue
• Immune system
• Hematopoietic system
• An overview of cancer therapy
• Systemic chemotherapy and resulting toxicities.

A glossary of terms is also included.

MacMillan Cancer Support (formerly Cancerbackup) site presents generic information about cancer, information about different cancer types as well as web-based fact sheets on different cancer treatments and supportive care. A searchable database of cancer trials available in the UK and Europe is also provided. Some fact sheets are available in languages other than English.

The majority of information is written for a lay audience. However, a Health professionals section provides links to UK and overseas treatment guidelines and provides a series of discussion papers on topical issues.

The main menu groups information as follows:

• About cancer
• Cancer types
• Treatments
• Resources and support
• Trials
• Health professionals
• News

Each sub-menu provides further sub-divisions allowing users to quickly identify the area of interest to them. The information is comprehensive and written in plain English.

The date of development/revision of the information is supplied at the bottom of each page.

Medscape offers specialists, primary care physicians, and other health professionals integrated oncology medical information and educational tools. It‘s mission is to provide clinicians and other healthcare professionals with timely, comprehensive and relevant clinical information to improve patient care; to make the clinician‘s task of information gathering simpler, more fruitful, and less time-consuming; and to provide physicians with the educational tools needed to stay current in their practice.

Some of Medscape‘s key features include:

• Professional medical content, including review articles, journal commentary, expert columns, patient education articles and book reviews
• over 850 online CME activities
• access to presentations from conferences and medical meetings
• a primary-source medical journal, The Medscape Journal of Medicine
• a weekly email newsletter.

The NCI website contains a broad range of structured information about cancer and cancer-related topics for doctors, patients, their families and carers.

Information ranges from introductory background information that would be useful for lay people and health professionals without a background in cancer, to more detailed information relating to particular types and stages of cancer and its treatment.

The Cancer Topics menu includes accessible explanations of:

• The nature of cancer
• Cancer types
• Management of side effects (Coping with cancer)
• Treatments
• Support and resources (US context but largely generic information)
• Screening and testing
• Prevention, Genetics, Causes.

NCCN is developing a library of chemotherapy order templates to improve the safe use of drugs and biologics in cancer care. The information contained in the NCCN Templates is based on the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (TM) and the NCCN Drugs & Biologics Compendium (TM). The NCCN Templates include chemotherapy, immunotherapy, supportive care agents, monitoring parameters, and safety instructions. Special instructions for self-administered chemotherapeutic agents are provided.

The templates enhance patient safety by allowing you to:

• Standardize patient care
• Reduce medication errors
• Anticipate and manage adverse events.

Note: NCCN Templates are a peer-reviewed statement of the consensus of the authors derived from the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (TM) regarding their views of currently accepted approaches to treatment. The NCCN Templates do not constitute orders. Any clinician seeking to treat a patient using the templates is expected to use independent medical judgment in the context of individual clinical circumstances of a specific patient‘s care or treatment. NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (TM) can also be downloaded from the site.

In two large randomized trials, researchers examined the effect of annual prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening on the rate of death from prostate cancer and found that it was small and was offset by false positive diagnoses. Since screening may have benefits in catching cancers early but may also carry risks including that of unnecessary treatment, professional societies have split on the question of whether to recommend regular PSA screening.

In a roundtable discussion moderated by Dr. Thomas Lee, oncologist Philip Kantoff and primary care physician Mary McNaughton-Collins debate the clinical implications of the new findings and the best way to advise patients about undergoing PSA testing.

Links to the articles about the recent PSA trials are available on the site:

• Mortality Results from a Randomized Prostate-Cancer Screening Trial
• Screening and Prostate-Cancer Mortality in a Randomized European Study
• Screening for Prostate Cancer - The Controversy That Refuses to Die

Flash player is required to view the video and can be downloaded here.

A transcript of the video is also available on the site.

The Cancer Genetics Resource Directory gives Australian health professionals and members of the public access to a wide range of cancer genetics and familial cancer resources. It was originally developed by the National Cancer Genetics Education Group in 2002 and hosted by the National Cancer Control Initiative and was designed to provide centralised, searchable access for the public and health professionals to information and resources about cancer genetics, genetic testing and familial cancer.

Information and links regarding many aspects of radiation oncology including radiotherapy services, cancer treatment options, accommodation and travel schemes and other government assistance available, and links to useful websites for patients and health professionals.

The Centre for Genetics Education is dedicated to providing current and relevant genetics information to individuals and family members affected by genetic conditions and the professionals who work with them. Based at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, the Centre‘s research and educational activities aim to bring genetics information to the widest audience possible.

Included on the site are:

• Links for health professionals to publications, portals, reports, texts, policies and clinical guidelines addressing genetic health services and genetic conditions;
• Information regarding genetics, cancer and heredity, including downloadable fact sheets
• FAQs and reports for consumers and their families.

The Cancer Institute NSW has produced a range of practical resources to support cancer health professionals, patients, their carers and families including cancer directories and registries.

The Faculty of Radiation Oncology is part of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists and has a range of objectives including promotion of the study of and the advancement of knowledge in the field of Radiation Oncology and promotion and encouragement of high levels of skill and expertise and high ethical standards in the practice of Radiation Oncology through a Continuing Professional Development program and by other means.

The FRO also aims to assure the quality and rigour of training and assessment of registrars in Radiation Oncology, to act as an authoritative body in matters of public interest in connection with the field of Radiation Oncology, foster collaboration with clinicians and other health practitioners and other persons and organisations to further or advance knowledge in the field of Oncology, and Radiation Oncology specifically to encourage research in matters connected with the field of Radiation Oncology.

eviQ Cancer Treatments Online is a single repository of standardised, current, evidence based, peer reviewed information about clinical cancer treatments. Designed by medical oncologists to reduce unneccesary practice variation, eviQ provides clinicians, primary carers, patients and carers in all clinical and geographical settings with free 24 hour access to comprehensive information, relevant to the Australian context.

In scope and presentation eviQ represents a significant advance on its forerunner CI-SCaT. The eviQ information system offers standardised and comprehensive information that aligns to the clinical workflow and supports the clinician at the point of care. eviQ also provides treatment and procedure specific patient information for use by clinicians delivering care to cancer patients.

Information is targeted via categories:

• Cancer Genetics
• Haematology
• Marrow Transplantation
• Medical Oncology
• Medical Physics
• Nursing
• Palliative Care
• Patient Information
• Primary Health Care (Cancer Australia funded section)
• Radiation Oncology

eviQ also includes a searchable database of cancer symptoms and cancer medications including information about adverse reactions, an opioid calculator and links to many other credible sources of cancer information.

The RCPA website: http://www.rcpa.edu.au/ provides various cancer related information in fact sheets and articles in it‘s topical publications, Pathways and Common Sense Pathology.

The RCPA Manual at: http://www.rcpamanual.edu.au/default.asp is an informative and user-friendly online manual that explains the selection and interpretation of pathology tests relevant to cancer and an extensive list of other diseases.

An article detailing the role of Pathologists as key team players in cancer management by Wendy Pryor, Director, Education for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia can be be downloaded here.

The purpose of Adjuvant! is to help health professionals and patients with early cancer discuss the risks and benefits of getting additional therapy (adjuvant therapy: usually chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or both) after surgery.

The goal is to help health professionals make estimates of the risk of negative outcome (cancer related mortality or relapse) without systemic adjuvant therapy, estimates of the reduction of these risks afforded by therapy, and risks of side effects of the therapy. These estimates are based on information entered about individual patients and their tumors (for example, patient age, tumor size, nodal involvement, histologic grade, etc.)

The information is provided as a supplement to, not substitute for, clinical judgment.

Radiation to the head and neck and chemotherapy for any malignancy can cause a range of oral side effects. For some patients, these complications may become dose-limiting and slow, or even halt, cancer treatment.

This brochure provides information for oncology teams to assist in the prevention and management of oral complications to help support optimal cancer treatment and patient quality of life.

The primary objective of Diagnostic Imaging Pathways is to achieve the appropriate application of medical imaging technology to diagnosis in order to reduce the incidence of unnecessary or excessive examinations which may expose patients to risk without benefit, including the risk of false-positive results, and increase the incidence of appropriate examinations which will result in efficient diagnosis and effective treatment.

Imaging Pathways are included for: