Medical terms A–Z

Narrowed heart arteries starve the muscle of blood, causing chest pain on effort and, when one blocks, a heart attack.

In anatomy, corpus names the main body of an organ or structure, setting it apart from a neck, head, or other named part.

Two jobs sit under one name, calming inflammation and holding on to salt, and each drug leans toward one or the other.

Corticotropin release follows a daily pattern and rises further during physical or emotional stress, driving a corresponding rise in cortisol.

A bacterium that may stimulate the immune system to fight cancer.

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

The smell of new-mown hay and tonka beans, and the plant chemical that mold converted into the first true blood thinner.

An estrogen-like substance (phytoestrogen) made by some plants.

A type of coumestan.

The word stretches from grief support to a genetics appointment, so the qualifier in front of it carries most of the meaning.

An inherited condition that scatters benign growths through many organs and raises the lifetime risk of several cancers.

An inherited disorder marked by the formation of many noncancerous growths called hamartomas.

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

An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

A drug used to treat certain types of non-small cell lung cancer.

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

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

A condition of the prostate gland that continues or gets worse over a long period of time.

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

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

A drug used alone or with other drugs to treat colon cancer or rectal cancer that has spread to other parts of the body or has come back after treatment with fluorouracil.

An investigational sulfonamide tested against cancer, sharing a chemical backbone with the sulfa antibiotics but none of their antibacterial action.

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

A muscle locking up on its own, briefly and painfully, most often in the calf, the foot or the abdominal wall.

A non-cancerous growth near the pituitary gland that causes serious trouble through its position rather than by spreading.

A craniotomy creates a temporary opening in the skull to give surgeons direct access to the brain for a planned neurosurgical procedure.

A compound that is excreted from the body in urine.

Most cholesterol in the blood is manufactured by the liver rather than eaten, which is why a drug aimed at the liver works.

The older everyday name for a baby dying without warning during sleep, with no cause found afterward.

Pierced with small holes as in a sieve.

Crisis intervention aims to reduce immediate risk during an acute emotional crisis rather than provide the ongoing care an underlying problem may need.

An anticancer drug that interferes with the DNA in cancer cells.

Full-thickness, patchy inflammation is what separates it from ulcerative colitis, and it explains the fistulas and narrowings that follow.

Describes the process inside a cell that occurs when the same signal is shared by two or more signaling pathways.

The cabbage family, named for its cross-shaped flowers and marked out chemically by the sulfur compounds behind its bitterness.

Cryoablation destroys abnormal tissue by freezing it precisely, offering an alternative to heat based or open surgical tissue removal.

Cryopreservation cools cells, tissue, or organs to very low temperatures to halt biological activity and store them for later use.

Cryosurgery destroys abnormal or diseased tissue by freezing it, most often with liquid nitrogen or a pressurized cooling gas.

A procedure in which tissue is frozen to destroy abnormal cells.

Cold used to soothe and cold used to kill tissue share one name, separated only by how far the temperature is taken.

A condition in which one or both testicles fail to move from the abdomen, where they develop before birth, into the scrotum.

CSF is the fluid that bathes the brain and spinal cord, providing cushioning and a pathway for clearing waste from the central nervous system.

CSP is an older abbreviation for a phyllodes tumor, a fibroepithelial breast growth that is usually benign despite its historical name.

A method to examine the inside of the colon by taking a series of x-rays.

A series of detailed pictures of areas inside the body taken from different angles.

A form of the anticancer drug paclitaxel combined with a protein called poliglumex that may have fewer side effects and work better than paclitaxel.

A form of the anticancer drug camptothecin that may have fewer side effects and work better than camptothecin.

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

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

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

The scan can find a growth but cannot remove or sample one, so anything suspicious still ends in a scope procedure.

A three-letter shorthand for cyclophosphamide, a drug that arrives inactive and has to be switched on by the liver.

Volume, not length: reporting a lesion in cubic centimeters captures how much of it there is, which three measurements alone do not.

The ability to understand, interact, and work well with people of different cultures.

Group patterns describe tendencies and never individuals, so assuming a belief from someone's background is its own error.

A living cell kept and multiplied outside the body, where it can be watched, treated and counted in ways a person cannot be.

Cells of a single type (human, animal, or plant) that have been adapted to grow continuously in the laboratory and are used in research.

In medicine, the total amount of a drug or radiation given to a patient over time; for example, the total dose of radiation given in a series of radiation treatments.

The total amount of a substance or radiation that a person is exposed to over time.

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.

This antihistamine relieves allergy symptoms and itching, and is also used off label to stimulate appetite and to counteract excess serotonin activity.

A sac or capsule in the body.

Depending on the organ involved, a cystectomy may mean either removing the entire urinary bladder or removing a cyst from a different organ.

A tube that carries bile from the gall bladder.

A common hereditary disease in which exocrine (secretory) glands produce abnormally thick mucus.

Removing the bladder means inventing a replacement for it, and that reconstruction shapes recovery more than the removal does.

A leaf-patterned breast tumor carrying an alarming old name that describes neither its usual behavior nor its true nature.

Rigid or flexible: the choice of instrument decides whether the look inside happens in a clinic room or an operating room.

Ultrasound and CT show the bladder wall from outside; only a look inside reveals flat patches of abnormal lining.

Surgery to remove the bladder (the organ that holds urine) and urethra (the tube through which urine leaves the body).

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

A group of enzymes involved in drug metabolism and found in high levels in the liver.

The study of chromosomes and chromosomal abnormalities.

Cytokines are small signaling proteins that immune cells release to coordinate inflammation and communication between cells during infection or injury.

Cytology is the microscopic examination of individual cells, commonly used to screen for abnormal or cancerous changes such as in a Pap test.

Cytomegalovirus is a common herpesvirus that usually causes no symptoms in healthy people but can produce serious illness during pregnancy or immune suppression.

A shortage of one or more blood cell types, given a different name depending on which line has run low.

If the nucleus is the archive, this is the factory floor, and pathologists read the two compartments against each other as a ratio.

Written as C in a sequence, it always sits opposite G, and it carries the chemical tag that can quiet a gene.

Cytotoxic describes something that damages cells or causes cell death.

Anticancer drugs that kill cells, especially cancer cells.