Medical terms beginning with L

An anticancer drug that belongs to the family of drugs called enzyme inhibitors.

L-arginine is an amino acid the body uses to build protein and to produce nitric oxide, a molecule that widens blood vessels.

A bacterial enzyme pressed into service as a drug, exploiting one thing leukemia cells cannot do that healthy cells can.

Made in the body and eaten in meat, it is the ferry without which long chain fats never reach the furnaces inside a cell.

One of twenty amino acids (molecules that join together to form proteins).

A drug being studied in the treatment of young adults with bone cancer that has gotten worse or come back.

A form of the hormone progesterone that is made in the laboratory and used to prevent pregnancy.

A substance that is being studied in the treatment of cancer.

Shrinking a laboratory onto a slide changes the physics as much as the scale, and that is rather the point of it.

The inner lining of the lips.

Research done in a laboratory.

A reference range shows what is usual in a healthy population, not what suits one person, so a flagged result is not automatically abnormal.

A gland that secretes tears.

Losing it after childhood is the normal human pattern; keeping it into adulthood is the genetic exception that spread with dairy farming.

Lactate dehydrogenase is an enzyme active in nearly all body tissues, and its blood level rises with cell injury from a wide range of causes.

Lactic acid is produced naturally in muscle and other tissue during energy metabolism and is also formed by bacteria that ferment food and skin products.

Lactic acid dehydrogenase is an enzyme found throughout body tissue, and a rising blood level points to cell damage from many causes, not only cancer.

Lactobacillus is a genus of bacteria that produces lactic acid and normally lives harmlessly in the human gut, mouth, and vaginal tract.

Lactoferrin is an iron binding protein in milk and other secretions that helps limit bacterial growth as part of innate immune defense.

Lactose is the natural sugar in milk that requires the enzyme lactase to be broken down and absorbed in the intestine.

Lactose intolerance results from insufficient lactase enzyme, leading to digestive symptoms after consuming milk or other dairy products.

A white blood cell that is stimulated in a laboratory to kill tumor cells.

A type of connective tissue found under the thin layer of tissues covering a mucous membrane.

Long filed as an odd inflammatory reaction, it is now recognized as a clonal growth driven by a mutation in one signaling route.

Wax recovered from sheep wool and purified, valued because it holds water against the skin much as the skin's own oils do.

A once-daily background insulin engineered to form a slow-release deposit under the skin instead of acting all at once.

It is the eye of keyhole surgery: instruments enter through separate ports, and the whole team operates from one magnified screen image.

Surgery to remove all or part of the prostate with the aid of a laparoscope.

Laparoscopic surgery uses small incisions, a camera, and long instruments to operate inside the abdomen or pelvis without the large opening open surgery requires.

Surgery done with the aid of a laparoscope to remove all or part of the colon through several small incisions made in the wall of the abdomen.

Surgery done with the aid of a laparoscope.

Trading one long wound for several small ones changes the recovery far more than it changes the operation performed inside.

A laparotomy is an open surgical incision through the abdominal wall, performed to directly examine, diagnose, or treat conditions inside the abdominal cavity.

A drug used with another anticancer drug to treat breast cancer that is HER2 positive and has advanced or metastasized (spread to other parts of the body) after treatment with other drugs.

A plant whose seeds and root have been used in some cultures to treat certain medical problems.

Lung cancer in which the cells are large and look abnormal when viewed under a microscope.

A type of white blood cell that contains granules with enzymes that can kill tumor cells or microbial cells.

Little food value is left by this stage; the work here is reclaiming water and packing what remains into stool.

Laryngeal structures and conditions involve the larynx, the part of the throat responsible for voice production and protecting the airway during swallowing.

Laryngeal cancer forms in the larynx, the structure used for breathing, swallowing, and speech, and most often begins in its lining cells.

A laryngectomee is a person who has undergone complete surgical removal of the larynx and now breathes through a neck opening.

A laryngectomy is a surgical procedure that removes all or part of the larynx, most often to treat laryngeal cancer.

Laryngitis causes hoarseness or voice loss when the vocal folds swell, most often from a viral infection, overuse, or irritant exposure.

A laryngoscope is a lighted instrument used to view the larynx, most often to guide placement of a breathing tube.

Laryngoscopy is a procedure to directly view the larynx, either with a hand held mirror or with a lighted instrument called a laryngoscope.

Known as the voice box, though its first duty is closing the airway, and speech is the ability that was added later.

Ordinary light spreads out and contains every color; a laser beam holds one wavelength and stays narrow, which is what makes it a tool.

The use of a low-level laser beam instead of an acupuncture needle to stimulate an acupuncture point.

Laser surgery uses a focused, high energy beam of light to cut, seal, or remove tissue with precision across many surgical fields.

Laser therapy applies a focused beam of light to cut, seal, or reshape tissue, with uses spanning surgery, eye care, dermatology, and supportive cancer care.

A feeling of tiredness, weakness, and lack of interest in daily activities.

Side effects of cancer treatment that appear months or years after treatment has ended.

A term used to describe cancer that is far along in its growth, and has spread to the lymph nodes or other places in the body.

Present but not announcing itself, a state that separates carrying something from being ill with it.

Lavender is an aromatic flowering plant whose oil is widely used in aromatherapy and traditional preparations for its calming scent.

A laxative is a substance used to promote bowel movements or ease the passage of stool, available in several different forms and mechanisms.

A drug being studied in the treatment of cancer.

Abnormal cells filling the milk-producing lobules, treated as a warning sign for both breasts rather than as a cancer of one.

LDH is the abbreviation for lactate dehydrogenase, an enzyme present in most body tissues whose blood level rises whenever cells are damaged or dying.

A complex molecule that has both protein and sugars.

Treatment with drugs that become active and may kill cancer cells when exposed to light.

A technique that uses electric current passed through a thin wire loop to remove abnormal tissue.

A source of free legal help for people who cannot pay, increasingly based inside clinics because so many health problems have legal roots.

A benign smooth muscle tumor, usually in the uterus or gastrointestinal tract.

Leiomyosarcoma is a rare malignant tumor arising from smooth muscle cells, most often found in the uterus, abdomen, or retroperitoneum.

A lemon is a citrus fruit valued as a natural source of vitamin C, historically important for preventing the vitamin C deficiency scurvy.

Most of the eye's focusing power comes from the cornea; the lens supplies the adjustable part, and that adjustment is what age removes.

A beta-glucan (a type of polysaccharide) from the mushroom Lentinus edodes (shiitake mushroom).

A form of the anticancer drug paclitaxel that is contained in very tiny, fat-like particles.

An adjective that quietly narrows the field to two of the three coverings, the pair the spinal fluid actually runs between.

Cancer that stops behaving like a lump and starts behaving like a fluid, settling wherever spinal fluid happens to flow.

A serious problem that may occur in cancer in which cancer cells spread from the original (primary) tumor to the meninges (thin layers of tissue that cover and protect the brain and spinal cord).

An area of abnormal tissue.

In everyday speech it means tired; in a clinical note it means the level of consciousness itself has dropped, which is a different claim.

The same molecule rescues healthy tissue from one chemotherapy drug and sharpens the action of another, depending on which it is paired with.

A blood donation run in reverse: the machine keeps the white cells and hands back everything else, over several hours.

A cancer with no lump to find, because the affected cells travel in the bloodstream instead of forming a mass.

A serious problem that may occur in leukemia.

A serious problem that may occur in leukemia.

Which type is raised matters more than the total, since neutrophils, lymphocytes and eosinophils each point somewhere different.

Which type of white cell is missing matters more than the total, since neutrophils carry most of the protection against bacteria.

Leukoplakia is a thickened white patch on a mucous membrane, most often in the mouth, that occasionally develops into cancer.

Leuprolide is a hormone-suppressing injectable used for advanced prostate cancer, early puberty, and certain gynecologic conditions, sold under names including Lupron.

An old deworming drug now met far more often as a cocaine adulterant, capable of wiping out the white cells that fight infection.

A ranking system used to describe the strength of the results measured in a clinical trial or research study.

A drug used to treat actinic keratosis (a skin condition that may become cancer).

A drug used to treat skin problems caused by cutaneous T-cell lymphoma that have not gotten better after other treatment.

LH is a pituitary hormone that triggers ovulation in females and stimulates testosterone production in males, acting on the ovaries or testes respectively.

A hormone that stimulates the production of sex hormones in men and women.

A drug that inhibits the secretion of sex hormones.

Lhermitte's sign is an electric shock like sensation down the spine triggered by bending the neck forward, pointing to spinal cord irritation.

A rare, inherited predisposition to multiple cancers, caused by an alteration in the p53 tumor suppressor gene.

An anticancer drug that promotes differentiation by increasing the levels of retinoic acid within the tumor.

Sexual desire or the mental energy or emotion related to sex.

The process of tying off blood vessels so that blood cannot flow to a part of the body or to a tumor.

The instrument behind nearly every pathology slide, and one whose limit is set by the wavelength of light itself.

Different wavelengths do entirely different jobs, so the color of the light is as much a part of the prescription as the timing.

Treatment with drugs that become active and may kill cancer cells when exposed to light.

A member of a group of substances found in plants that have shown estrogenic and anticancer effects.

A procedure that may be used to deliver anticancer drugs directly to an arm or leg.