Medical terms A–Z

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

A substance that has been studied in the treatment of some types of cancer.

One word covering a timetable and a legal classification, with nothing in common between them except the spelling.

A test in which iodine is applied to the cervix.

The negative symptoms, such as blunted emotion and lost motivation, often shape daily life more than the hallucinations the illness is known for.

A type of glial cell of the peripheral nervous system that helps separate and insulate nerve cells.

A schwannoma is a nerve sheath tumor that is nearly always benign, most often affecting a peripheral nerve or the nerve supplying hearing and balance.

A symptom rather than a diagnosis, and a word stretched loosely to cover almost any leg pain that seems to start in the back.

SCID is a group of rare inherited disorders in which T lymphocyte function is severely impaired, leaving the immune system unable to fight infection.

The defining feature is not the laboratory coat but the obligation to publish a method other people can use to prove the result wrong.

A procedure that produces pictures (scans) of structures inside the body, including areas where there are cancer cells.

A type of breast imaging test that is used to detect cancer cells in the breasts of some women who have had abnormal mammograms, or who have dense breast tissue.

The white of the eye is a shell of dense collagen, and its color is one of the easiest clues to read.

A chronic disorder marked by hardening and thickening of the skin.

A benign condition in which scar-like tissue is found in a gland, such as the breast lobules or the prostate.

The twist counts as much as the bend, since rotation pushes the ribs into the hump that reveals a curve on bending forward.

X-rays of the breasts taken to check for breast cancer in the absence of signs or symptoms.

An organ deliberately kept outside the body, because the cells it protects cannot do their work at core temperature.

An herb that belongs to a group of herbs named the Scutellaria species or scullcap.

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