Following a diagnosis of cancer, there are many treatment options available to patients. These include surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. All of these therapeutic interventions are associated with side effects. In addition, cancer itself can increase the risk of co-morbid events such as venous thromboembolic complications and nutritional deficiencies.

Treatment induced side effects or co-morbid events are believed to be largely unpredictable. Therefore oncologists generally take action only after the event occurs (i.e. reactively). This involves trying to "rescue" the patient from a subjectively unpleasant and potentially dangerous situation, and then making adjustments to the regimen such as dose reduction and/or institution of supportive care medication such as colony stimulating factors to prevent another episode.

Clinical care could be substantially improved if these episodes of significant toxicity could be accurately predicted, with steps taken in advance to prevent their occurrence in the first place (i.e. proactively). Such steps might include the use of appropriate supportive care medication, as well as forewarning the patient and initiating a more intensive early monitoring scheme and action plan for early intervention.

The realities of health care systems around the world preclude such arrangements being put in place, for all patients, throughout all cycles of chemotherapy. What may be possible, however, is a highly focused strategy based on the accurate prediction of patients at higher than average risk, applied "just-in-time" to pre-empt episodes of toxicity. In other words, it should be possible and economical to intervene preventatively if we knew who was at higher risk, and when (i.e. at what cycle) the risk would become elevated. The current website is intended to provide some of this information to the clinician. Within this website, validated prediction models are presented which could be applied to determine the risk of a particular side effect faced by a patient.

The current website contains validated models that are intended to provide patient specific information on the percent risk for a particular toxic event. This risk data is calculated through mathematical equations, that were developed based on large previously collected patient databases. In order for the risk calculation to be performed, certain data must be entered. However, no personal or institutional specific information is requested nor is it required to perform the calculation.

The current website should only be used by a qualified medical professional or an allied health care professional, who is working under the supervision of a treating physician. The prediction models were developed from adult cancer patients and should not be used for patients less than 18 years of age. The website should not be used by patients or family members.

In order to access this site, simply request access. You will be required to enter some basic geographical information along with a contact e-mail. The e-mail is needed to send you your institution ID information.