Medical terms A–Z

Relief arrives in days rather than months, because the drug changes muscle tone instead of shrinking the gland causing the obstruction.

It does not shrink the prostate at all; it slackens the muscle wrapped around the outlet, so any relief arrives within days.

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

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

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

Treatment aimed at a single molecule a disease leans on, rather than at every fast-dividing cell in the body.

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

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

Tasigna targets the specific abnormal protein responsible for driving cell growth in a genetically defined form of chronic leukemia.

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

Yew-derived chemotherapy that freezes the cell's internal scaffolding solid, which is the opposite of what the other scaffolding drugs do.

A drug used with prednisone to treat hormone-resistant prostate cancer that has spread and that had been treated with docetaxel.

Taxol is the brand name for paclitaxel, a chemotherapy drug that stops cancer cells from dividing by disrupting their internal skeleton.

A brand of docetaxel, a chemotherapy drug that works by freezing the internal scaffolding a cell needs in order to divide.

Tazarotene is a topical retinoid medication used primarily to treat psoriasis and acne by normalizing skin cell growth and turnover.

A laboratory-made cousin of vitamin A whose established job is calming psoriasis and acne, not the cancer uses it is sometimes listed under.

Infection and disease are not the same thing here, and most people who carry the bacteria never become ill or infectious.

An Australian shrub with no relation to tea, whose oil is applied to skin and poisons children who swallow it.

A radiolabeled substance that is used to help identify sites of tumor development.

The word is loose in everyday speech, and several roles it gets applied to carry a formal title of technologist, reflecting longer training.