Bone, Joint and Muscle Terms

The unifying feature is molecular rather than anatomic, which is why a bone tumor and a chest wall tumor sit in the same group.

An enchondroma is a benign cartilage growth within bone, most often found in the small bones of the hand and often discovered incidentally.

A drug that blocks the hormone endothelin and may prevent prostate cancer from spreading to the bones.

Vitamin D2, produced by shining ultraviolet light on yeast or mushrooms, and the one form of vitamin D the body cannot make.

A condition in which immature red blood cells (erythroid cells) in the bone marrow are abnormal in size, shape, organization, and/or number.

A condition in which immature red blood cells (erythroid cells) in the bone marrow are abnormal in size, shape, organization, and/or number.

Cancer of the blood-forming tissues in which large numbers of immature, abnormal red blood cells are found in the blood and bone marrow.

The kidney doubles as an oxygen meter, releasing this hormone whenever the blood passing through it carries less oxygen than it should.

The adjective attached to anything concerning the swallowing tube, from reflux and strictures to cancers and speech after surgery.

Lacking the outer wrapping that surrounds other digestive organs, the esophagus lets a tumor reach neighboring structures early.

A valve at each end keeps traffic moving one way, and it is failure of the lower one that causes most trouble.

After menopause the ovaries largely stop making it, and fat tissue converting adrenal hormones becomes the main remaining source.

A type of paranasal sinus (a hollow space in the bones around the nose).

Ewing sarcoma is an aggressive childhood and adolescent cancer of bone or soft tissue, marked by a characteristic chromosomal translocation involving the EWSR1 gene.

Outside of the cranium (bones that surround the brain).

Extraosseous findings or tissue occur outside the bone itself, a distinction that matters when a tumor or process could otherwise arise within it.

Surgery to remove a diseased lung, part of the pericardium (membrane covering the heart), part of the diaphragm (muscle between the lungs and the abdomen), and part of the parietal pleura (membrane…

A rare inherited disorder in which the bone marrow does not make blood cells.

A benign smooth-muscle tumor, usually in the uterus or gastrointestinal tract.

A diagnosis that has shrunk as laboratory testing improved, since most tumors once given the name proved to be something else.