A belief that embracing an open source philosophy can be a pathway to empowering patients, researchers, legislators and all those engaged in the fight against cancer is a core value here at Cancer Research Journal. In that spirit, I wanted to share with you a few metrics from Google Analytics regarding our performance to date and take a brief look ahead to some things planned for 2009.

The First Fifteen Months:

On May 22, 2007 Cancer Research Journal published our first post. September 30, 2008 marked the end of the last full calendar quarter that we have user data for. So with those two endpoints in mind, here’s a chart that tracks the growth in unique visitors to CancerResearchJournal.com during that time period, broken out by calendar quarter.

Digging a little deeper, the numbers suggest that 76% of these visitors arrived here via a search engine — with 87% of this search engine traffic from Google, 5% from Yahoo and the rest from Live, Ask and a few others.

Other sites or email messages which contained links to this site accounted for about 12% of traffic. These are sometimes called referrers or referring sites, and Bloglines, del.icio.us and Inspire led the way in this category.

That leaves about 12% of you who arrived here directly by entering CancerResearchJournal.com into your browser, or by using a previous bookmark for return visitors. And regarding browsers – 69% of all visitors used some version of Internet Explorer, 24% Firefox, 5% Safari, with the remaining roughly 1% split among Opera, Chrome and a few others.

During this span, and among all types of visitors, these 10 posts generated the most page views:

Cuba Approves CimaVax EGF Vaccine for Lung Cancer
Kanzius Machine Uses Radio Waves to Kill Cancer Cells
Fighting Cancer with Social Media
Canine Cancer Patients Benefit from Cliff Book
KRAS is Key to Choosing Colorectal Cancer Chemotherapy
Five Year Old Eye Cancer Survivor Excels At Golf
NSF, IBM and Google Collaborate to Give Scientists a CluE
Mayo Clinic Oncologists Answer Cancer Questions Online
Yale Uses Rabies-Related Virus to Target Brain Tumors
Korean Cancer Patients Battle Blues With Laughter Therapy

These figures imply that 1,296 unique users, or roughly 17%, visited here more than once. Combined, all visitors generated 16,975 impressions with each user spending an average of 2 minutes and 13 seconds here per visit.

What do these numbers mean for Cancer Research Journal?

While the global mix of visitors and a sustained growth rate in readership of about 100% a quarter are encouraging, the relatively modest unique visitor total makes clear there remains much work to do.

A Look Ahead to 2009:

In the second half of 2008 Cancer Research Journal began adding new features that reflect a greater commitment to locating and delivering quality video content regarding cancer research, as well as aggregating content related to cancer research from other publications. Look for those areas to continue to grow in 2009 as well as an effort to become a more effective advocate for the use of modern information sharing techniques to be applied to the distribution of news and information regarding cancer research.

This publication believes that the same energy and effort devoted to SEO and other Social Media techniques that commercial businesses put into helping you find information about their consumer products and services can be utilized by organizations and individuals involved in fighting cancer to help make it easier to share and find high quality information about the latest breakthroughs that are important to you.

Moving knowledge out of silos and into systems is key.

Whether by serving as a place to try out some of these new ideas, sharing success stories about how others in the field of cancer research are adopting forward thinking information distribution strategies, or by consulting directly with organizations to assist in implementing fresh approaches — Cancer Research Journal will be working to help cancer patients, families, legislators and medical professionals locate the new information they need.

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related links: caBIG; Alliance for Taxpayer Access

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Duke University Medical Center have started a program to help breast cancer survivors and their daughters get fit after cancer treatments are done.

Daughters and Mothers Against Breast Cancer, called DAMES for short, is a one-year diet and exercise program sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The program is being conducted as part of larger study exploring possible ways to improve the health of former cancer patients and their families.

To be eligible for DAMES, both the mother and daughter must be overweight (with a Body Mass Index of 25 or more), but not participating in another weight loss program. Mothers must have been diagnosed with breast cancer within the last five years and at least 50 years of age to enroll in DAMES. Daughters must be 21 years of age or older.

Women who participate in the free program will be provided with various resources (diet/exercise journals, pedometers, iPods, etc) to help them develop healthier lifestyles and their progress will be monitored by scientists. As one survivor who joined the program said,

“I gained some weight during my treatment and it’s been hard getting into a regular exercise routine. By participating in DAMES, I believe that I may have that extra incentive to exercise daily and eat healthy because my weight will be monitored regularly by the study researchers.”

Alejandra Leon
Breast Cancer Survivor

To learn more about the DAMES, call 1-866-566-4108 or e-mail DAMES@geri.duke.edu.

Source: MD Anderson Cancer Center – Cancer Awareness and Prevention

Related Link: MD Anderson CancerWise

Related Podcast: The Well Podcast – Cancer and Exercise from The New York Times

Technorati Tags: Houston, Texas; North Carolina; obesity; oncology; women’s health

If you’ve had the opportunity to read our manifesto, you already know that finding new and novel ways to improve scientific information sharing relating to cancer is what this publication is all about.

During online research for articles on emerging cancer technologies and treatments, I’ve come across some entertaining and informative sites offering high quality science podcasts tailored to young listeners. Many of these segments provide a quick, convenient way to help kids learn more about key scientific concepts like mathematics or biology without piling more homework on their plate.

While these sites aren’t specifically tailored to cancer or medical technologies, they are valuable resources for the parents, educators, mentors and others who’ll encourage the budding researchers of tomorrow. They can also help young patients understand more about their own bodies and some of the treatments or tests they receive. Here are a few of the audio and video offerings I’ve recently added to my favorites list:

Bytesize Science from the American Chemical Society

Clear Voices Podcasts from EarthSky.org

DragonflyTV from PBS Kids

60-Second Science from Scientific American

Why? Science Podcast from the Youth Science Forum

These brief podcasts are primarily targeted for children and young adults, but many older adults who haven’t set foot in a science classroom in a while will find them interesting too. They’re also easy to download so you can listen whenever you want to – like during a workout or waiting for an appointment.

If you know of any other reliable web sites offering free health or science downloads for our audience, please send me an e-mail at lisa@cancerresearchjournal.com and I’ll add it to our journal’s del.icio.us bookmarks so other patients and professionals can benefit from your surfing. If you’re scientist with some time on your hands, we hope you’ll consider sharing some of what you know in a similar fashion — you may inspire a future breakthrough.

And thanks to everyone involved with creating these innovative broadcasts – we look forward to enjoying more of them!

“The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you’re learning, you’re not old.”

Rosalyn Yalow
Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1977

Source: CancerResearchJournal.com

Related Links: OER Commons

Technorati Tags: elearning; health literacy; teaching tools

Thanks in part to a new set of online video distribution services provided by Voxant, you can now watch a variety of the latest cancer research related news video from around the world all in one place – the Cancer Research Video News Feed.

Compiled by CancerResearchJournal.com from mainstream media sources like CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the BBC and CBC, along with video content from leading medical organizations like the Mayo Clinic, the feed is designed for patients, health care professionals, legislators and others interested in learning about advances in cancer research.

You can access the video news feed directly by going to http://cancerresearchjournal.com/cancer-research-video/ or by clicking on the Video Feed button in the menu bar at the top of this page.

If you have a cancer research related web site and believe the feed may be of value to your users, you can find out more about how to share it with them by clicking on the embed button in the upper right hand corner of the video player.

Please be aware that the feed may at times include preroll, postroll, or other styles of sponsored messages.

Source: CancerResearchJournal.com

Technorati Tags: viral video; thenewsroom.com; msm

Scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, Hebrew University, the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and the New York University School of Medicine have used computational biology techniques to identify 480 genes that control human cell division, including 118 that could contribute to cancer.

Rather than focusing on missing genes, this international team decided to concentrate on genes which were present but not activating properly. Their investigation revealed specific genes which either expressed in a steady state or not at all instead of routinely cycling on and off as genes normally would during the cell replication process.

While more investigation is necessary to determine whether the genes cause specific cancers on their own, they just contribute to carcinogenesis, or their abnormal activity is a side effect of the disease, the team is pleased about the insights they’ve gained using the computational biology-based research methods. As one scientist explained,

“We have narrowed down the field of candidates. Instead of looking at thousands of genes, now we can concentrate on about 100.”

Itamar Simon, PhD
Molecular Biologist, Hebrew University

Results of the team’s research will be published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Source: Carnegie Mellon University News

Related Links: ScienceDaily; TS-Si.org; acor.org; HHMI

Related Podcast – Systems Biology: The Future of Biomedical Science? on Science Talk from Scientific American

Tags: Ray and Stephanie Lane Center for Computational Biology; oncology; mitosis; DNA repair; computer science; Pittsburgh

Researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of Connecticut found that prostate cancer patients taking low dose aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes had a lower survival rate than those men who didn’t follow an aspirin regimen.

The scientists attribute the difference in mortality rates to the interruption of hormone therapies used to treat intermediate- or high-risk prostate cancer.

The interruptions occur because hormone treatments impact the body’s ability to metabolize aspirin which can affect the patient’s liver function. If liver tests routinely given to cancer patients detect an abnormality, physicians may discontinue anti-androgen therapy so liver problems aren’t aggravated.

In the Dana-Farber/UConn study, one androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) called flutamide had to be discontinued in 37 percent of the patients taking baby aspirin because the men’s liver function tests showed abnormalities. After seven years, the patients who stopped flutamide treatments early experienced a death rate 3.5 times higher than those who received the full course of both hormones. Prostate cancer patients who received radiation treatments alone had a mortality rate 6.1 times higher than those who received both hormone therapies.

The scientists say their findings underscore the importance of informing your healthcare provider about all prescription and over-the-counter medications you are taking. As one doctor pointed out,

“It is important for the public to be aware that commonly used medications can interfere with the deliver of full-dose cancer therapy that may compromise curability.”

Dr Anthony V. D’Amico
Chair, Division of Genitourinary Radiation Oncology
Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

More information on the study has been published in the December 27, 2007, edition of New England Journal of Medicine.

Source: White Coat Notes from The Boston Globe

Related Links: USA Today; Connecticare; Yahoo! News; National Prostate Cancer Coalition

Related Podcast: Marking a Milestone in Prostate Cancer Treatment from NPR

Related Spanish/Español Links: HealthDay

Tags: urologic oncology; male genital cancer; chemotherapy; Harvard Medical School; Drogenil®; Dr Philip W Kantoff; Ming-Hui Chen; Massachusetts; Storrs, CT; pharmacokinetics

Does it appear to you that too much information regarding cancer is not as easy to access as it could be?

CancerResearchJournal.com thinks so.

From cancer patients and their family members searching for new developments related to a recent diagnosis; to local, state, and federal legislators seeking to make better decisions on how to allocate funding; to the wide variety of professionals looking for ways to improve efficiency in their own administrative, marketing and other critical support roles; and, yes, to even the busy healthcare provider, scientist or student wanting to keep up, the blessing of vast amounts of new knowledge can become a burden when it comes time to put that knowledge to work in your life.

So, with that reality in mind, ask yourself –

Is there a better way for all those living or working anywhere on the continuum of cancer research to more easily access the knowledge and experience of all the others?

We believe there is. And it is that core belief that sparked the genesis of CancerResearchJournal.com.

Here’s the dream, plain and simple:

Once a person is hit with the diagnosis you have cancer, they are immediately empowered with the knowledge and tools to locate and subscribe to a digital stream of up-to-date, high quality information about their particular disease.

Ok, that sure sounds nice. But what exactly does it mean? And what will it take to get it done?

Great questions.

To help you visualize how this process could work, here’s a re-creation of our initial back of the envelope outline of the strategy behind the idea.

Though it may be a rather crude roadmap for such a complex journey, it is our relentless passion for the kind of information exchange this diagram illustrates that provides the precious fuel for CancerResearchJournal.com’s twofold mission –

To inform and inspire.

First, the mission to inform expresses our desire to build a publication you can turn to for regularly updated information about cancer research. You no doubt know of others already working on similar efforts and they deserve your support. Still, the hope here is to create our own distinct niche by presenting stories in an easy to understand style that includes relevant links designed to provide you with a more comprehensive understanding of research-related news in less time.

Second, the mission to inspire means encouraging those impacted by – or having an impact on – cancer research to adopt new publishing platforms and strategies. It can be disappointing to see a premier cancer research or treatment facility devote valuable portions of their web site to brochureware when leaders like these could be using their online resources to share important information about their scientific discoveries and innovations.

To promote progress in this area, you can look forward to articles focused on how patients and professionals can use – and are already using – Social Media tools like Wordpress, RSS, del.icio.us, Creative Commons and others to open up bottlenecks and break down barriers that keep information out of the hands of the people who need it most. The reasoning here being that the more people who adopt – and demand – these methods be put in place, the greater the possibility that a network effect will take hold.

The greater the possibility of a world without cancer.

If you believe that empowering patients and professionals with better tools and techniques for sharing information can be a valuable weapon in the fight against cancer, we look forward to working with you to help make it happen.

Mailing Address:

CancerResearchJournal.com
PO BOX 781447
San Antonio, TX 78278-1447

Senior Content Contributor:

Lisa Edwards: lisa at cancerresearchjournal dot com

Founder:

David Cummings: dc at cancerresearchjournal dot com