Like so many people who are diagnosed with cancer, I voraciously turned to the Internet when I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma nine years ago. Much of what I found was frightening. After gasping several times, I somehow had the wits to realize that I had no idea whether the information was reliable, much less whether it applied to me. I was simply too new at having cancer to fully understand what I was reading, and looking back now at what I printed off then, I see that much of the information was already old and out of date. Some was flat out wrong.

Today, there is much more online information to help us cope with the physical, emotional and practical challenges, but google "cancer" and you get 890 million results. So much information can be overwhelming, and not all of it is accurate because anybody can publish anything on the web. Out of context information can be misleading, and sources can be biased. And bad information — or even too much of it — can compound the trauma of cancer.

So how do we evaluate information on the web? The following guide will help separate fact from fiction and opinion.

Who operates and funds the website? The organization should be identified and include contact information. Financial backing can influence how information is presented.

There are sites that charge membership fees and are operated by people who are not physicians. There are sites that are fully supported by advertising or operated by industry. Google "chemotherapy," and the top two sites are operated by pharmaceutical companies and the third by a private, for-profit treatment center. Does this mean these sites are bad? Not necessarily. It just means that they may have an agenda.

Who is responsible for the site’s content? Reliable sites tell you who operates the site and who is responsible for content. For example, the website of the American Society of Clinical Oncology discloses who sits on the editorial board, and disease-specific fact sheets from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society reveal the expert who reviewed the information. Credentials do matter.

How current is the information? The world of cancer changes rapidly. Studies that were made 20 years ago are probably out of date.

Where does the site get its information? Is it someone's opinion or it is based on fact? If it's written by a non-scientist, it is reviewed by an expert? Reliable sites usually link to studies so that opinions are backed up by scientific data. Again, dates on studies are relevant.

Linking: Links can take you to different sites, but they may not have the same criteria as the one you left, so each should be evaluated individually.

So what are some reliable sites? The National Cancer Institute, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and major medical centers such as the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center are great places to start. If you stay on sites like these, you'll begin to see that they are saying the same things, so if you later read something completely different, you'll recognize it as a red flag. And if you read something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The Internet is a rich source of information but it's also a prolific dispensary of misinformation.  Knowing the difference means carefully evaluating the sites we visit so that the information we do gather is reliable.  Because reliable information leads to having meaningful discussions with our doctors, participating effectively in our care, and making informed decisions about the various challenges we cancer patients face.  And that can improve the quality of our lives. 

Next Friday, January 28: Understanding the language of medicine

Previous installments of Candid Cancer archived here. 

Betsy de Parry is the author of The Roller Coaster Chronicles, a book about her experience with cancer and the shorter, serialized version she wrote for annarbor.com. Find her on Facebook or email her.