Our sources & how we verify
Every explanation on Cancer Explained is based on educational content from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the U.S. government’s principal agency for cancer research. We don’t add medical facts from anywhere else.
One trusted source
In this version of the site, NCI (cancer.gov) is our single source of truth. If a fact isn’t supported by the NCI page a topic is based on, it doesn’t go on the page. We never invent, estimate, or guess at medical information.
What we do — and don’t do
We do
- Rewrite NCI content in plain language
- Link to the original NCI page on every topic
- Show the date we accessed the source and the NCI review date
- Encourage you to read the original and talk with your care team
We don’t
- Give medical advice or diagnose
- Recommend specific treatments
- Add facts NCI doesn’t state
- Overstate certainty beyond what the source says
How we verify each page
- We draft each explanation from a specific NCI source page.
- We re-fetch that live NCI page and compare every statement — including summaries, key takeaways, quiz questions, and glossary terms — against the source.
- Anything not supported is corrected to match the source, softened to match NCI’s own wording, or removed. Nothing is replaced with a guess.
- We confirm the citation link works and record the NCI review date.
Our most recent full accuracy review was completed on July 2, 2026, covering all 41 articles, their questions, quizzes, and the glossary. NCI updates its pages over time, so please treat the original NCI page as the most current and complete source.
Found something that looks off?
Accuracy matters to us. If a page seems to disagree with its NCI source, please compare it with the linked original — and always rely on your healthcare team and cancer.gov for complete, current information.