Medical Literature Database Search Engines

4a. Here are some database search tools for finding medical information about cancer. Although most of these are based on the U.S. National Library of Medicine's gargantuan collection of journal articles called MEDLARS, they have significant differences among themselves. In the past, you could spend literally thousands of dollars per year obtaining such information; today they are virtually free, thanks to the Internet.

We have also run a little head-to-head comparison of these tools that you might find interesting.

PubMed	We found PubMed to be the fastest and most efficient single search tool. This is an experimental service of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). PubMed was developed in conjunction with various publishers of biomedical literature. Sometimes it can connect you to full-text versions of the articles at publishers' Web sites. Another important feature: PubMed not only searches the 8 million citations in MEDLINE but occasionally gives you pre-Medline, i.e. pre-1966 citations. This can be extremely important in doing a thorough search.
HealthGate Beta Site	This is a fast and attractive search engine from HealthGate (see below). Still in beta testing, it offers you quick access to either MEDLINE or CancerLit from 1975 on--for free. It is the premier site for accessing CancerLit. The main drawback of this site is that it does not allow you to search MEDLINE before 1992.
HealthGate	This was one of the first to provide a free gateway into MEDLINE. Access tends to be slow and clunky (hence the beta version above). It is best when you want to get very specific in your search, such as asking to see just the clinical trials on a particular topic. They offer full-text of any article at $20 per paper. One word of caution: HealthGate defaults to the "last two years" of papers, instead of accessing entire database. Make sure you check the time-span you are interested in.
Avicenna	Avicenna.com is named for a famous Persian physician of the 11th Century, author of the encyclopedic "Canon of Medicine." This came out tops in our tests for completeness, especially when we added AIDSLINE to our Medline search. (There's some overlap between the cancer and AIDS literature.) One drawback is that they put you through an annoying password routine every time you sign on. Another is that their Medline goes back only to 1990. Nor do they offer you a way to order full-text of papers. That said, Avicenna.com is quick, efficient and incredibly complete.
HealthWorld Online	At first sight, this "virtual village" seems most complete. However, not all the references it finds are to peer-reviewed literature. The rest are an interesting potpourri of chemical formulas, popular articles, etc., many of which are for sale. Definitely a must-see for finishing up any extensive search.
CancerLit, University of Bonn	This is essentially NCI's CancerLit information. However, this is a very truncated version of the full CancerLit, listed above. For instance, searching for the word "herb" in HealthGate's CancerLit beta site, we came up with 322 references. Using this Bonn/NCI site we came up with a total of 2! This Bonn/NCI site is only to be considered supplemental.
U.S. Patent Search	Fast and efficient way to look up U.S. patents in any field, including almost 6,000 patents relating to cancer. Often yields valuable information, including addresses of proponents. Unfortunately, at this writing they are only providing abstracts of patents. We discovered interesting information about antineoplastons, beta-carotene, even "noni juice" here. Also see the AIDS Patent Database for full texts on some of these patents.
IBM Patent Server	IBM, of all people, is making full patents, going back to 1971, available via the Internet. Their site is logically organized but sometimes to see the full patent you have to order a copy from Optipat (800-445-9760), which entails a small charge.
UNC Sunsite	If you know the class and subclass of the patent you are looking for, you can find all the patents relating to a particular category. A bit clunky, but useful all the same.
Directory of Databases	For more advanced searching, consult this directory of medical databases, presented by the Rosenthal Center of Columbia University. It contains intelligent discussions of or links to many little-known search tools, such as the British Library collection on complementary medicine, TradiMed from Korea, the Indian Medicinal Plant database, and so forth. Trouble is that often these demand a hefty fee or--worse yet--recourse to the Postal Service.

Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. is the author of eight books and three documentaries on cancer-related topics. He is an advisor on alternative cancer treatments to the National Institutes of Health, Columbia University, and the University of Texas. He researches and writes individualized "Healing Choices" reports for people with cancer. For information on Healing Choices, you can contact fill out a Questionnaire, send us an instant email message or contact coordinator Anne Beattie @ 144 St. John's Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217; Phone 718-636-4433; Fax 718-636-0186.

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