A survey of web resources for basic cancer genetics research.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize information resources and databases available on the World Wide Web that are pertinent to cancer genetics research. We focus primarily on Web resources for basic research as opposed to patient care, clinical trial information, genetic testing, gene therapy, and general cancer health issues. Included in our survey are Web sites that are primarily descriptive, those that are searchable by key words, and those that are linking pages to other cancer research sites. A summary table for the cancer research Web sites described in this paper is provided (Table 1). A summary list of general cancer research Web sites is also provided in Appendix I. To focus the scope of this survey further, we concentrated on five key areas for basic cancer genetics research: (1) animal models; (2) cancer genetics and genomics; (3) pathology; (4) reagents, services and laboratory protocols; and (5) cancer biology. In Appendix I, we provide a list of some cancer research-related sites that did not readily match any of the five focus areas but that will be of general interest to the community. As we searched for relevant Web sites, we tried to use them to answer the following kinds of research questions:

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