Introduction

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Australia, with an estimated 8,100 people dying from the disease in 2010. [1] The prognosis for those diagnosed with lung cancer is poor and has improved only slightly in the last twenty years. [2] The care and support of people affected by lung cancer is complex. Palliative care is increasingly being included in the management and care of people with advanced malignant and non-malignant diseases, including lung cancer. [3]

In 2010-2011, staff from Palliative and Supportive Services at Flinders University undertook several projects for the Cancer Council Australia. One of these projects aimed to develop and validate a search filter for lung cancer (and discriminatory filters for small cell and non-small cell lung cancer) for use within Medline. [4] The three search filters were subsequently translated for use within PubMed making them available for automated searching via hyperlinks.

Available Searches

Three sets of searches relating to lung cancer are now available:

• Lung cancer search filters
  Three PubMed variants of the general lung search filter, the NSCLC search filter and the SCLC filter are available to retrieve literature via a hyperlink.
• Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) PubMed Searches
  These searches use the PubMed version of the NSCLC filter to create hyperlink searches on major care issues relating to operable and inoperable NSCLC.
• Lung Cancer and Palliative Care PubMed Searches
  These searches combine the PubMed version of the lung cancer search filter with important palliative care issues to enable automated hyperlinked based searching on these topics.

References

1. Cancer Australia. Lung Cancer Program. [Updated 2011 Nov 3; Cited 2011 Nov 10].
2. AIHW & Cancer Australia. Lung cancer in Australia: an overview. Cat. no. CAN 58. Canberra: AIHW; 2011.
3. Haines IE. Managing patients with advanced cancer: the benefits of early referral for palliative care. Med J Aust. 2011 Feb 7;194(3):107-8.
4. Damarell R, Tieman JJ, Olver I, Currow DC. Lung cancer search filters: Connecting to the evidence. [Poster] Clinical Oncological Society Australia, 38th Annual Scientific Meeting, 2011 Nov 15-17; Perth, Australia.

Page last updated10 November 2011