3
BIOSIS Evolutions
Search Tips
When the Diagnosis Is Cancer... Finding Oncology
Studies in BIOSIS Previews
Every year, cancer accounts for increasing rates of
death in the industrialized world. BIOSIS Previews,
with its comprehensive collection of research and
clinical literature in all areas of medicine, is a rich
resource for information on all aspects of oncology,
including basic research, epidemiology, detection,
and treatment. Relational Indexing is a powerful
tool with which to retrieve this material and achieve
very specific recall. This article summarizes the
ways in which cancer information is indexed in
BIOSIS Previews
and offers tips for constructing
search strategies.
Major Concepts
To describe the broadest scope of cancer-related
articles, BIOSIS editors can assign either of these
controlled terms as Major Concepts:
Oncology (Human Medicine, Medical Sciences)
Tumor Biology
Types of cancer
Under Relational Indexing, individual types of cancer
are indexed as uncontrolled terms in the Diseases field.
They are qualified with the controlled disease modifier
neoplastic disease, from the Authority File, plus any
relevant disease modifier to identify the affected organ
system. The specific tumor type is usually given.
E x a m p l e s : lung cancer - neoplastic disease,
respiratory disease
colon carcinoma - neoplastic disease,
digestive system disease
For best results, include as many synonyms for
tumor types as possible in your strategy.
Disease names can appear with additional qualifiers
to identify key aspects such as staging, metastasis,
mode of treatment, survival, etc.
E x a m p l e :
ovarian cancer, multivariate analysis,
reproductive system disease/female, stage I,
prognostic factors, neoplastic disease
Drug names
Drugs used in cancer chemotherapy are indexed in
the Chemicals and Biochemicals field as uncontrolled
terms. The controlled term antineoplastic-drug, from
the Authority File's list of drug modifiers, identifies
the substance as a cancer chemotherapy drug.
Additional terms are often added to focus on aspects
such as combination or adjuvant therapy, clinical trial
phase, toxicity, route of administration, efficacy, etc.
E x a m p l e s :
vincristine - antineoplastic-drug
5-fluorouracil - antineoplastic-drug, combination
therapy, peripheral blood stem cell support
Quick tip: To search for studies on chemotherapy for
a specific cancer type, combine the disease name
with antineoplastic-drug in the Chemicals &
Biochemicals field and/or chemotherapy in the
Methods & Equipment field.
CAS Registry Numbers are also available for drugs
and chemicals:
E x a m p l e :
51-21-8: 5-FLUOROURACIL
Beyond chemotherapy
Besides chemotherapy, additional ways of treating
cancer are indexed in the Methods and Equipment
field with further descriptive information:
E x a m p l e s : hyperfractionated radiotherapy - dosage,
tolerance, limitations, therapeutic method
stomach resection surgical method
sentinel node biopsy cancer staging method,
minimally invasive
Tumor structures
Parts or activities of tumors, such as cancer cell
lines* or tumor vessels, can be indexed in the Parts,
Structures, & Systems of Organisms Field:
E x a m p l e s : pancreatic cancer cells apoptosis,
digestive system
spindle tumor cells chondroblastic
differentiation, fibroblastic differentiation
*Specific cancer cell lines such as HepG2 (human hepatoma cell line)
or P388 (murine lymphocytic leukemia cell line) are indexed in the
Organism field.
Additional indexing
As of 1999, MeSH (Medical Subheadings) disease
terms from the U.S. National Library of Medicine are
now being added as additional subject access points.
They appear in the Alternate Indexing field.
E x a m p l e s : N e o p l a s m s
Lymphoma, Large-Cell
Continued on page 6
