Robin Roberts and the Teachable Moment

Thank you for your informative SharePost, Craig. Great to have the level of health information expertise you offer.

Your list of credible sources for online breast cancer information is great. May I add a few more:

MedlinePlus: National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine - Breast Cancer

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/breastcancer.html 

American Cancer Society - Breast Cancer

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/CRI_2x.asp?sitearea=LRN&dt=5 

MayoClinic.com - Breast Cancer

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-cancer/BR99999

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

http://cms.komen.org/komen/index.htm

The Internet holds a vast amount of breast cancer information. However, along with your top recommendations, these are some of the "best of the best."

Keep your wealth of knowledge and experience coming. Much appreciated, Craig.

Best of health,

Maria

Maria Gifford

Community Moderator MyBreastCancerNetwork.com

I am a 15 year cancer survivor and have devoted my advocacy efforts to gathering the most evidence-based info on complementary and alternative approaches as possible - but that is rarely possible.

Most cancer funding is focused on chemo, radiation and hormones.

Since natural approaches cannot be patented, they are just not given the funding and attention.  Is this right? 

What if the best approach combines nutrition with exercise (recent study in J Clinical Oncology pointed to that), with conventional drugs?

How will we find out until the focus changes.

Check www.annieappleseedproject.org for much more.

And remember this, when a treatment becomes acceptable, it is no longer considered 'alternative' and everyone forgets its origins.  Thus there is much to still discover.

And I think recommending quackwatch needs to be re-evaulated.  They are not neutral and NOT evidence-based - Evidence-based healthcare includes three sections - studies, physicians experience and patients preferences & concerns.

Ann F.

Ann,

Thank you for weighing in. I'd like to hear more about why you don't think Quackwatch is a good source of information and what your list of reputable alternatives would be.

How would you recommend that patients, survivors and their families approach CAM breast cancer treatments?

A quick note, as you share your Web site with the cancer community: You might want to warn people that you play a welcome message and other audio messages throughout your site.

While it's a nice touch to hear your voice, there is no apparent way to shut it off, other than shutting down the browser. Especially since people might be seeking out resources on a library computer, I think you should consider offering, prominently, a way to shut off the sound on your site.

Returning to the main point, however, I would welcome reading more of your comments and thoughts on your project.

Best,

Sarah

Julia Schopick, a patient advocate and web-based public relations consultant, has some good information about natural medicine at her web site http://www.honestmedicine.com./ She did an extensive interview with Dr. Ronald Hoffman, one of the foremost integrative medicine physicians.

http://www.honestmedicine.com/2007/08/dr-ronald-hoffm.html

Ann Fonfa, of the AnnieAppleseed Project, provides information, education, advocacy and awareness for people with cancer who are interested in complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) and natural therapies from a patient's perspective.

http://www.annieappleseedproject.org/

Sandra Gooman, Ph.D., author of four books, including "Nutrition And Cancer: State Of The Art," and editor of Positive Health, http://www.positivehealth.com/ a professional magazine devoted to complementary medicine, has researched the efficacy of natural therapy treatments.

http://www.drsgoodman.com/nutrition_cancer.php

Cancer Monthly is a centralized source of the survival rates and side effects of hundreds of the latest cancer treatments, as well as reports on alternative and integrative approaches to treatment.

http://www.cancermonthly.com/