Medical terms beginning with M

Far less common than the everyday skin cancers but responsible for most deaths from them, because it spreads while it is still small.

The earliest recognized stage of melanoma, still trapped in the outer skin layer where no blood or lymph vessels reach.

A cancer vaccine prepared from human melanoma cancer cells.

A protein found in skin and eye cells that make melanin (a pigment that gives color to the skin and helps protect it from damage by ultraviolet light).

A membrane is a thin sheet of tissue that lines, covers, separates, or encloses a body structure or cavity.

An inherited condition that may result in the development of cancers of the endocrine system.

An anticancer drug that belongs to the family of drugs called antitumor antibiotics.

A rare, inherited disorder that affects the endocrine glands and can cause tumors in the parathyroid and pituitary glands and the pancreas.

Having to do with the meninges (three thin layers of tissue that cover and protect the brain and spinal cord).

One condition carrying at least five names, recognized by trouble that refuses to point to a single spot in the nervous system.

A serious problem that may occur in leukemia.

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).

A condition marked by headache, fever, and a stiff neck, which is caused when the meninges (three thin layers of tissue that cover and protect the brain and spinal cord) become irritated.

The three thin layers of tissue that cover and protect the brain and spinal cord.

A type of slow-growing tumor that forms in the meninges (thin layers of tissue that cover and protect the brain and spinal cord).

Inflammation of the meninges (three thin layers of tissue that cover and protect the brain and spinal cord).

Hormones (estrogen, progesterone, or both) given to women after menopause to replace the hormones no longer produced by the ovaries.

Bleeding heavy enough to disrupt daily life often traces to fibroids, hormone shifts or an inherited clotting problem, and steadily drains iron.

The menstrual cycle is the recurring hormonal sequence that prepares the uterine lining for pregnancy and sheds it when pregnancy does not occur.

The periodic discharge of blood and tissue from the uterus.

Menstruation is the cyclical shedding of the uterine lining that occurs when pregnancy does not take place, recurring throughout the reproductive years.

A specialist who can talk with patients and their families about emotional and personal matters, and can help them make decisions.

A mint compound that persuades cold-sensing nerves to fire, producing a chill on skin whose temperature has not changed.

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

Three chemical forms with three different hazards, which is why an exposure cannot be judged from the word mercury alone.

An easy or painless death, or the intentional ending of the life of a person suffering from an incurable or painful disease at his or her request.

A touch sensor that also behaves like a hormone releasing cell, and the namesake of a cancer it may not actually produce.

A rare type of cancer that forms on or just beneath the skin, usually in parts of the body that have been exposed to the sun.

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare, aggressive skin cancer linked to sun exposure and immune suppression, arising from neuroendocrine skin cells.

Mesenchymal describes embryonic connective tissue and the cells derived from it that can develop into bone, cartilage, fat, and blood related tissue.

The peritoneal membrane that attaches the intestines to the abdominal wall near the back.

A rare type of tumor, usually of the female genital tract, in which the insides of the cells look clear when viewed under a microscope.

A surface protein the cells that make it barely seem to need, which is precisely what makes it a usable target on tumors.

A cancer of the mesothelium, the thin lining around the lungs, abdomen or heart, strongly associated with past asbestos exposure.

One copy can be read many times over before it is destroyed, which is how a single gene yields thousands of protein molecules.

One adjective covers energy use, inherited enzyme faults, acid balance and a cluster of risk factors, so context decides its meaning.

Metabolic acidosis is a drop in blood pH caused by excess acid production or loss of the body's bicarbonate buffer.

A condition in which normal metabolic processes are disrupted, usually because of a missing enzyme.

Metabolic syndrome describes a cluster of findings, including abdominal obesity and abnormal blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol levels, that together raise cardiovascular and diabetes risk.

Metabolic syndrome X is an older name for metabolic syndrome, the clustering of abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, and abnormal glucose and lipid levels.

Treatment to correct changes in metabolism that can be caused by disease.

In alternative medicine, a theory that people fall into one of three groups (protein, carbohydrate, or mixed type) based on the main type of food that their bodies need to stay healthy.

Two opposing sets of reactions run at once, one tearing molecules apart for energy and the other spending that energy building new ones.

A substance made or used when the body breaks down food, drugs or chemicals, or its own tissue (for example, fat or muscle tissue).

A taste of coins or blood with nothing metal in the mouth, arising from the taste and smell pathways rather than the food.

Metaplasia is a reversible change in which one mature cell type is replaced by another, typically in response to ongoing irritation or stress.

A general term used to describe cancer that begins in cells that have changed into another cell type (for example, a squamous cell of the esophagus changing to resemble a cell of the stomach).

Surgery to remove one or more metastases (tumors formed from cells that have spread from the primary tumor).

A tumor in the liver made of colon cells is still colon cancer, which is why origin governs treatment rather than address.

A tumor found in the liver may still be breast cancer, because spreading cells keep the identity of where they began.

Metasynchronous describes a second finding, such as a related tumor, identified within a short interval of the first rather than at the same time.

Swelling of the abdomen caused by gas in the intestines or peritoneal cavity.

Methemoglobin is a chemically altered form of hemoglobin that cannot bind oxygen, and it is normally present in blood only in small amounts.

Methemoglobinemia occurs when methemoglobin, a form of hemoglobin unable to carry oxygen, builds up in the blood beyond its normal small proportion.

The section readers skip is the one that decides whether the result at the end of the paper means anything at all.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

A substance being studied in the treatment of anemia in patients who are receiving chemotherapy.

A methyl group is a one-carbon chemical unit that, added to or removed from DNA or proteins, can switch nearby gene activity on or off.

A drug used in photodynamic therapy; it is absorbed by tumor cells and, when exposed to light, becomes active and kills the cancer cells.

Adding a single small carbon tag to a molecule, a change tiny in size but large in what it switches off.

A drug used to relieve certain side effects caused by treatment with opiods (pain killers similar to morphine), such as constipation (hard, dry stools), itching, and low urine flow.

Benefit and hazard flow from one action, the blocking of dopamine, in the gut in one case and the brain in the other.

The drug arrives inactive and becomes a poison only inside organisms that live without oxygen, which is the source of its narrow aim.

Continuous or frequent treatment with low doses of anticancer drugs, often given with other methods of therapy.

A machine that uses electricity to form a stream of fast-moving subatomic particles.

A plant whose roots are used as a sedative and to treat certain medical conditions.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

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

MGUS is a generally symptomless blood finding that carries a modest, ongoing risk of eventually progressing to multiple myeloma or a related condition.

A ball of soap-like molecules hiding a greasy core inside a water-friendly shell, which is how soap lifts fat and how the gut absorbs it.

Any substance or process that kills germs (bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms that can cause infection and disease).

A tiny deposit of calcium in the breast that cannot be felt but can be detected on a mammogram.

Bacteria and other organisms that live inside the intestines.

An instrument that uses very small amounts of fluid on a microchip to do certain laboratory tests.

A microgram is a metric unit of mass equal to one millionth of a gram, commonly used to measure very small medication doses.

Small numbers of cancer cells that have spread from the primary tumor to other parts of the body and are too few to be picked up in a screening or diagnostic test.

A concentration of 1/1,000,000 (one millionth) molecular weight per liter (mol/L).

Unlike macronutrients such as protein and fat, micronutrients are needed only in small amounts yet remain essential for normal body function.

An organism that can be seen only through a microscope.

MicroRNA is the full name behind the abbreviation miRNA, a short RNA molecule that silences messenger RNAs rather than coding for a protein itself.

A short sequence of DNA, usually 1 to 4 basepairs (a unit of DNA), that is repeated together in a row along the DNA molecule.

A change that occurs in the DNA of certain cells (such as tumor cells) in which the number of repeats of microsatellites (short, repeated sequences of DNA) is different than the number of repeats…

Diagnosis of many conditions rests on magnification, because healthy tissue and diseased tissue often part company only at cellular scale.

Its opposite is gross, meaning visible without help, and the pair marks the boundary between what an eye and a lens can each detect.

A very tiny, hollow, round particle made from glass, ceramic, plastic, or other materials.

A technique used to help determine the stage (extent) of melanoma and certain squamous cell cancers.

A type of acupuncture in which a microwave device is attached to an acupuncture needle to give microwave radiation at an acupuncture point.

A type of treatment in which body tissue is exposed to high temperatures to damage and kill cancer cells or to make cancer cells more sensitive to the effects of radiation and certain anticancer…

A type of treatment in which body tissue is exposed to high temperatures to damage and kill cancer cells or to make cancer cells more sensitive to the effects of radiation and certain anticancer…

Speed in and speed out is the point: it suits a procedure that lasts minutes, not a symptom that lasts months.

The clinician whose training centers on birth as a normal event, with the judgment to recognize when it has stopped being one.

A whole-brain event that happens to hurt: the pain is one stage of an attack starting hours before it and outlasting it.

A thin tube in the breast that carries milk from the breast lobules to the nipple.

One thousandth of a gram, the unit most drug doses are written in and the one most often confused with a microgram.

A measure of volume in the metric system.

Medical findings from skin lesions to blood vessel measurements are commonly sized in millimeters, a metric unit equal to one thousandth of a meter.

The amount of a substance equal to a thousandth of a mole (a measure of the amount of a substance).

A form of exercise that combines body movement with mental focus and controlled breathing to improve strength, balance, flexibility, and overall health.

Unlike vitamins, these are chemical elements: they cannot be built or destroyed by cooking, only taken in and lost again.

A clear, tasteless liquid distilled from crude oil, used to soften skin and to slide stool through the bowel.