Medical terms A–Z

Pain and nothing more: an ending reporting a symptom the person feels, with no claim about what is causing it.

A cutting out: the ending telling a reader that an operation removed something rather than merely opened or inspected it.

Whatever the root names, this ending places it in the bloodstream or describes the state of the blood itself.

The commonest ending in the whole vocabulary, and the one most often misread as proof that an infection is present.

Tissue gone soft where it should be firm, a change visible on scans and under the microscope alike.

An ending that records size and nothing else: the organ named in front of it is bigger than it should be.

The branch of knowledge, not the person: one ending names the field and a slightly longer one names its practitioner.

An abnormal state or an ongoing process, and the ending most often mistaken for a second word meaning inflammation.

A syllable apart from removal and from a lasting opening, this ending means only that a structure was cut into.

Disease of a named part, used when the process is known to be wrong but not known to be anything more specific.

Surgery that rebuilds rather than removes, marking an operation whose whole purpose is shape and working function.

A suffix from the surgeon's vocabulary: the structure named in front of it has been stitched back together with sutures.

An ending that reports texture, not cause: the tissue named in front of it has become abnormally firm or scarred.

Looking inside with an instrument, an act named separately from the instrument that does it and from any image recorded.

The ending that reports a passage has been squeezed tighter, whether by scar, swelling, a growth or thickened valve leaflets.

A type of monoclonal antibody used in cancer detection or therapy.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

AAP most often abbreviates alanine aminopeptidase, a kidney tubular enzyme measured in urine, though the identical letters separately denote a well known pediatric professional organization.

A staging system for prostate cancer that uses ABCD.

Clinicians divide it into four quadrants or nine regions, because where pain sits narrows down which organ is speaking.

As a modifier it states where, not what, so an abdominal finding can belong to any of several body systems.

An abdominal ultrasound uses sound waves to create real time images of organs inside the abdomen for evaluation of pain or suspected disease.

A quick plain film of the belly that is read mainly from the pattern of gas rather than from the organs themselves.

The name records both incisions, one in the abdomen and one around the anus, and because the anus goes, the stoma is permanent.

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

Clusters of abnormal tube-like glands in the lining of the colon and rectum.

A drug used to treat breast cancer that has spread or that has come back within 6 months after chemotherapy.

A prostate cancer tablet that shuts down testosterone production everywhere in the body, not only in the testicles.

The appeal is precision: a defined volume of tissue is destroyed where it lies, sparing the wider operation removing it would require.

Reference ranges are constructed to exclude a slice of healthy people, so ordering enough tests makes an abnormal result close to inevitable.

A system used to group human blood into different types, based on the presence or absence of certain markers on the surface of red blood cells.

Abraxane is a brand name chemotherapy drug that delivers paclitaxel bound to albumin nanoparticles to treat several types of cancer.

The wall that keeps the infection contained also keeps antibiotics out, which is why most abscesses are settled by drainage rather than by medication alone.

A measure of the risk of a certain event happening.

Absorption is the movement of digested nutrients, or a medication, from the digestive tract or another site into the bloodstream for use by the body.

A substance being studied in the treatment of lymphomas and other types of cancer.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

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

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

A substance being studied in the treatment of breast cancers caused by mutations (changes) in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

Four drugs chosen as much for what they avoid as for what they do, because the disease is usually cured and survivors live decades.

An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used to treat Hodgkin lymphoma.

An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used with radiation therapy to treat low-risk childhood Hodgkin lymphoma.

An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used with radiation therapy to treat low-risk childhood Hodgkin lymphoma.

An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used with radiation therapy to treat low-risk childhood Hodgkin lymphoma.

A human monoclonal antibody that is being used to treat colorectal cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.

The same two letters name a shoulder joint, a ventilator mode and a dosing instruction, so the surrounding note decides which AC is meant.

An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used with other types of therapy to treat breast cancer, including breast cancer that has spread or come back.

AC-T is a sequential chemotherapy regimen for breast cancer that pairs two drugs given together followed by a third drug given afterward.

An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used to treat breast cancer.

An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used to treat breast cancer.

A mixture of six herbs that has been used in China to prevent and treat diseases such as lung and esophageal cancers.

A phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia in which the disease is progressing.

Radiation treatment in which the total dose of radiation is given over a shorter period of time (fewer days) compared to standard radiation therapy.

A preventer rather than a reliever, blocking one specific chemical pathway of asthma instead of damping inflammation broadly.

A drug that is used to lower blood pressure.

Known as paracetamol outside the United States, and present in so many combination products that a total intake is easy to lose track of.

Acetate is a chemical compound derived from acetic acid, used in the body's metabolism and in many pharmaceutical and laboratory preparations.

Concentration decides everything: the same molecule flavors food, whitens abnormal tissue during an examination, and burns skin as an industrial liquid.

A small molecule made of two carbon, three hydrogen, and one oxygen atoms.

A form of carnitine that reaches the brain, sold as a supplement and studied mostly for nerve damage and memory.

A form of the natural substance carnitine that is being studied as a way to prevent tissue damage caused by chemotherapy.

A chemical reaction in which a small molecule called an acetyl group is added to other molecules.

Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that relays signals across synapses to nerve, muscle, and gland cells, supporting memory and muscle contraction.

One molecule with two unrelated jobs: thinning sticky mucus in the airway, and rescuing the liver after a paracetamol overdose.

A lack of hydrochloric acid in the digestive juices in the stomach.

An acid is a compound that releases hydrogen ions in water, ranging from digestive gastric acid to laboratory and industrial chemicals.

In medicine, the state of having the right amount of acid and base in the blood and other body fluids.

In medicine, the state of having the right amount of acid and base in the blood and other body fluids.

The process of making or becoming an acid.

A property rather than a substance, measured on a scale where each single step stands for a tenfold change.

Acitretin is an oral retinoid approved to treat severe psoriasis and also used off label to help reduce new skin cancers in certain transplant recipients.

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

A common skin condition, acne blocks and inflames hair follicles and their attached oil glands, producing pimples, blackheads, and cysts.

A substance being studied in the prevention of breast cancer in women at high risk of breast cancer.

Acoustic describes anything related to sound waves or hearing, including diagnostic tests, medical devices, and conditions that affect how sound is perceived.

A genetic condition in which tumors form on the nerves of the inner ear and cause loss of hearing and balance.

A disease caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

A rare disorder in which the bone marrow makes almost no red blood cells.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

Changes arrive so slowly that old photographs, a ring that no longer fits or a rising shoe size often reveal them first.

An industrial building block for acrylic fiber and hard plastics, not a medicine, with a cyanide-releasing breakdown and a contested cancer record.

ACTH is a pituitary hormone that signals the adrenal glands to release cortisol, rising during stress and following a natural daily rhythm.

A drug put on the skin to treat growths caused by sun exposure.

Often easier to feel than to see, these sandpaper patches mark skin that has absorbed decades of ultraviolet damage.

In cancer prevention clinical trials, a study that focuses on finding out whether actions people take can prevent cancer.

To flip something in the body from standing by to working, whether a cell, an enzyme or a swallowed drug.

The tasks of everyday life.

Actos is the brand name for pioglitazone, an oral medication that improves the body's response to insulin in type 2 diabetes.

A specific spot on the body where an acupuncture needle may be inserted to control pain and other symptoms.

The acupuncture map without the needles, applied by thumb or elastic wristband, and studied most seriously as a way of settling sickness.

The traditional explanation and the modern one differ sharply, yet both describe the same act of placing needles at fixed points.

A solid filament with nothing running through it, which is what separates it from every needle used to inject or withdraw.

A specific spot on the body where an acupuncture needle may be inserted to control pain and other symptoms.

A procedure in which drugs, vitamins, herbal extracts, or other fluids are injected into the body at an acupuncture point using a syringe and needle.

A procedure in which mild electric currents are applied to certain acupuncture points (spots on the body where an acupuncture needle may be inserted to control pain and other symptoms) on the skin.

The title carries no single meaning worldwide, since what an acupuncturist may train in, assess or treat is decided locally.

Mild electrical stimulation of acupuncture points to control symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.

Having a rapid onset, short course, or marked severity.

Inflammation of the prostate gland that begins suddenly and gets worse quickly.