In addition to offering high-quality oncology professional education, ASCO also supports a broad platform of patient education. For 19 years, the award-winning Cancer.Net website and ASCO Answers printed patient education materials have been bringing compassionate, trustworthy information to people with cancer and those who care for them.

For many patients, the first place they go after a cancer diagnosis is the internet. There, they will find Cancer.Net, which provides answers backed by science, written with sensitivity, and developed with the lay reader in mind. For 32 million people in 2020, Cancer.Net was a trustworthy online resource where they learned about cancer: their own, that of a loved one, or that of someone they know.

But not all people have equal access to the internet and, therefore, access to reliable online cancer education is also unequal. ASCO Answers printed materials help bring ASCO’s expert-supported patient education to those who are in need and those who don’t have easy access to information online.

What Is ASCO Answers?

"ASCO Answers are easy-to-read, take-home patient education materials that can help patients and their caregivers to become informed partners in their cancer care and enable shared decision-making," said Cancer.Net editor in chief Jyoti D. Patel, MD, FASCO.  

Not all patients with cancer have the same needs, so ASCO Answers offers different materials that suit different readers.

Fact sheets: Simple, 1-page overviews of a type of cancer, side effect, type of treatment, or diagnostic test. Fact sheets are ideal for people who need a quick overview of a topic in their cancer care. Most fact sheets include questions to ask their health care team and a handy glossary. There are currently more than 50 fact sheets available online, covering topics such as breast cancer, lung cancer, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, cancer-related fatigue, and sexual side effects of cancer. Many titles also have been translated into multiple languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Arabic, and Romanian.

ASCO Answers guides: In the past year, all ASCO Answers guides were reviewed and updated with the latest information. As part of this process, the guides were given a completely new look to make them easier to read and more useful for readers. ASCO Answers guides are a great resource for people who want to better understand their disease and treatment options and who want to record details of their diagnosis and personalized treatment plan in blank worksheet pages. There are disease-specific guides for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and small cell lung cancer.

In addition, the best-selling Guide to Cancer Survivorship and Guide to Caring for a Loved One With Cancer have also been fully reviewed and updated for 2021. These guides address the broad issues in cancer survivorship and caregiving and offer support for people with cancer and their loved ones.  

Topic-specific booklets: ASCO Answers topic-specific booklets address common concerns in cancer care, regardless of the type of cancer. These small-format booklets cover advanced cancer care planning, managing pain, managing the costs of cancer care, and palliative care. In addition to discussing the topic in depth, each booklet in this series includes a list of helpful resources so readers and their loved ones can find more support if they need it.

Give ASCO Answers to Your Patients

Patient education shouldn’t end when patients leave their appointments. Oncology professionals can give these materials to patients to help support and inform them after the rush of information and emotion that comes with a new diagnosis of cancer. These materials can be made available in waiting rooms or patient education resource centers. All ASCO Answers materials are available online as free PDF downloads, so patients can find these references at home as well with just the click of a button.   

You can see all available ASCO Answers patient education materials online. Every fact sheet, booklet, and guide is free to download as a PDF.

If you want high-quality printed materials for your clinic, many titles are available to purchase in bulk. ASCO Answers materials ship for free in the lower 48 states, and members receive a 20% discount.  

If you’d like to save the effort of creating your own patient education materials in-house, but still want your institution’s logo on the products, send an email to permissions@asco.org and ask about cobranding ASCO Answers materials.