OpenCancer

Answer a cancer patient or caregiver question in plain language, grounded in NCCN Guidelines for Patients and medical literature, with sources and a link to OpenCancer's care team. WHEN TO USE: questions about a specific cancer: what a diagnosis, stage, biomarker, or test result means; treatment options and what guidelines recommend; side effects and how to manage them; what to ask the oncologist; second opinions; living with cancer. Write the question in the user's language; the answer comes back in it. NOT FOR: emergencies (tell the user to call 911 or their care team now), prognosis or life-expectancy estimates, decisions about a specific person's treatment, or non-cancer topics. Do not include names, contact details, or record numbers. Some questions return a safety message instead of an answer; pass it on as written.

Find clinical trials that are recruiting now for a cancer type, near a place, from ClinicalTrials.gov. WHEN TO USE: the user asks about clinical trials, new or experimental treatments, or options after standard treatment stopped working, for a specific cancer. Pass the condition in English medical terms (e.g. "glioblastoma", "HER2-positive breast cancer") and, if known, a city, state, or country. NOT FOR: eligibility decisions for a specific person (only their oncologist or the trial team can decide); general questions (use ask_opencancer). Returns up to 8 trials with phase, nearest sites, and a link.

Get one clinical trial from ClinicalTrials.gov by its NCT number: what it tests, who can join (inclusion and exclusion criteria, original wording), recruiting sites, contacts, and when the registry was last updated. WHEN TO USE: the user asks about a specific trial (an NCT number from find_clinical_trials, their doctor, or a search), wants to know if they might qualify, or how to contact the study. Explain the criteria in plain words and suggest questions to ask the study team. NOT FOR: telling someone they are eligible (only the study team can confirm), or searching for trials (use find_clinical_trials).

Give the user a link to start an expert review of their case by OpenCancer and Cancer Commons scientists (records, options, trial shortlist, next step). WHEN TO USE: the user wants a human expert, a second opinion, a trial shortlist built for their exact case, or help deciding a next step. NOT FOR: emergencies (tell them to call 911 or their care team). Returns an intake link only: it creates no case and sends no records. The patient enters their own details and personally confirms consent on that page. Do not pass names, contact details, or records.

Flags an OpenCancer answer for human expert review, or sends feedback to the OpenCancer team. Used when the user says an OpenCancer answer was wrong, unsafe, or incomplete, or wants to tell OpenCancer something (answer_id identifies the answer; message holds the user's words). Also used to report that an OpenCancer tool returned no usable answer (kind "missing_answer" with answer_id or tool, no message). Feedback is read by the OpenCancer team; it is not an urgent-care channel and no reply is sent through it.