[A systematic evaluation of application of the web-based cancer database]

In order to support the theory and practice of the web-based cancer database development in China, we applied a systematic evaluation to assess the development condition of the web-based cancer databases at home and abroad. We performed computer-based retrieval of the Ovid-MEDLINE, Springerlink, EBSCOhost, Wiley Online Library and CNKI databases, the papers of which were published between Jan. 1995 and Dec. 2011, and retrieved the references of these papers by hand. We selected qualified papers according to the pre-established inclusion and exclusion criteria, and carried out information extraction and analysis of the papers. Eventually, searching the online database, we obtained 1244 papers, and checking the reference lists, we found other 19 articles. Thirty-one articles met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and we extracted the proofs and assessed them. Analyzing these evidences showed that the U.S.A. counted for 26% in the first place. Thirty-nine percent of these web-based cancer databases are comprehensive cancer databases. As for single cancer databases, breast cancer and prostatic cancer are on the top, both counting for 10% respectively. Thirty-two percent of the cancer database are associated with cancer gene information. For the technical applications, MySQL and PHP applied most widely, nearly 23% each.