Medical terms beginning with C

Tube-like gland found in the lining of the colon and rectum.

A colon polyp is an abnormal growth on the inner lining of the colon that is usually benign but occasionally becomes cancerous.

A thin, tube-like instrument used to examine the inside of the colon.

The only bowel test that both finds a polyp and removes it, which is why it prevents cancer rather than merely detecting it.

A substance that stimulates the production of blood cells.

Colorectal describes anything relating to the colon and rectum together, the final segments of the large intestine, most often in the context of cancer.

Because a polyp usually takes years to turn malignant, this is one of the few cancers screening can prevent rather than merely find early.

An opening into the colon from the outside of the body.

The instrument never touches the patient, which surprises people expecting something closer to an internal camera.

Examination of the vagina and cervix using a lighted magnifying instrument called a colposcope.

A state of unrousable unresponsiveness that resembles sleep from the outside and works nothing like it within.

Treatment using more than one anticancer drug.

The reason it is gastroenterology but gastritis: a linking vowel appears only when the next part starts with a consonant.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

A type of ductal carcinoma in situ (very early-stage breast cancer).

Comfort care focuses on relieving symptoms and improving quality of life, most often used to describe care provided near the end of life.

The common bile duct is the tube through which bile travels from the liver and gallbladder into the small intestine.

One short segment of the plumbing that drains bile, defined entirely by the two junctions at either end of it.

A community advisory board links a local community to clinical trial researchers, offering input on trial design, conduct, and how findings are communicated back.

Comorbidity describes the presence of one or more additional conditions occurring alongside a primary disease in the same person.