Medical terms beginning with C

CUP describes cancer confirmed on biopsy for which the original site of origin cannot be identified despite thorough evaluation.

Suction cups applied to the skin, a traditional practice recognizable afterward by rings of discoloration.

A claim about the future rather than the present, which is why it is used sparingly and other words are used instead.

Removal of tissue with a curette (a spoon-shaped instrument with a sharp edge).

A curette is a handheld surgical tool used to scrape or scoop tissue, debris, or growths from a body surface or cavity.

A small growth in the head drives glands above the kidneys, and the visible damage appears everywhere except where the fault lies.

By a wide margin the most common cause is steroid medication taken for another illness rather than a tumor.

Cutaneous findings and conditions involve the skin itself, as distinguished from structures located in deeper tissue layers or internal organs.

Cancer that has spread from the breast to the skin.

Three drug initials that have outlasted one of the drug names they stand for, and three letters that mean something else entirely elsewhere.

Cyanide is a fast acting poison that blocks cells from using oxygen, found in certain plants, smoke, and industrial chemicals.

The vitamin the body absorbs with the most difficulty is also the one it stores longest, so deficiency builds quietly over years.

A plant compound that contains sugar and produces cyanide.

The color depends on how much hemoglobin is traveling without oxygen rather than on the percentage, so anemia can hide it entirely.

A substance being studied in the treatment of some types of cancer.

White cell counts that rise and fall on a roughly three week schedule, so illness arrives on a predictable timetable.

COX inhibitor.

An enzyme that speeds up the formation of substances that cause inflammation and pain.

A nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used to relieve pain and inflammation.

Its pain effect runs through descending spinal pathways, which is why it eases nerve pain in people who are not depressed.