[Review of the literature, search of reports and critical reading of articles in cancerology].

The aim of this paper is to describe: (1) different times where we need to search and to analyse informations and documents in cancer field; (2) the literature process conducting to literature review. It includes, from the formulated question to its answer, the searching of relevant papers, the critical reading of selected papers, the inclusion of clinical research data, or even the elaboration of next research programs which will lead to new papers; (3) different actual means, specially electronic means, to search and select papers: different databases on line or on CD-ROM (Medline, Embase, Cancerlit, Pascal, Toxline, Bioethics, etc.), searching techniques adapted to cancer field, technical equipment required; (4) critical reading of selected papers. It is very easy to obtain lists of hundreds or even thousands of references, and simple rules for selection are needed for entirely reading only a limited number of relevant papers. A compromise is often difficult to find between exhaustivity and limited time we have to search and analyse literature. Synthesis of informations collected in evidence-based comprehensive reviews are useful for helping doctors to implement research results in their treatment practice.