Cancer and Oncology Terms

A shared vocabulary and a numbered ending for breast imaging reports, built so the same words mean the same thing everywhere.

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

Cancer that occurs in both paired organs, such as both breasts or both ovaries.

Surgery to remove both breasts in order to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer.

This uncommon cancer develops within the tubes that carry bile from the liver to the intestine, and can arise inside or outside the liver.

A rise in the blood level of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) in prostate cancer patients after treatment with surgery or radiation.

A rise in the blood level of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) in prostate cancer patients after treatment with surgery or radiation.

A medicine grown in living cells rather than built by chemistry, which is why no two batches are truly identical.

One phrase covering two very different things: a medicine made from living material, and an infectious hazard at work.

A biological drug is a medication manufactured from living cells or organisms rather than through direct chemical synthesis alone.

Treatment to boost or restore the ability of the immune system to fight cancer, infections, and other diseases.

Treatment to boost or restore the ability of the immune system to fight cancer, infections, and other diseases.

Treatment to boost or restore the ability of the immune system to fight cancer, infections, and other diseases.

Bisphosphonates slow bone breakdown and are used chiefly for osteoporosis, along with certain cancer related bone conditions and Paget disease.

The necrosis (death) of bone tissue caused by treatment with a bisphosphonate (a drug or substance used to treat osteoporosis, bone pain caused by some types of cancer, and high blood calcium).

Bladder cancer usually begins in the cells lining the bladder's interior, most often developing as urothelial carcinoma rather than the other, less common types.

A phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia in which tiredness, fever, and an enlarged spleen occur during the blastic phase, when more than 30% of the cells in the blood or bone marrow are blast cells…

A phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia in which 20% or more of the cells in the blood or bone marrow are blast cells (immature blood cells).

A chemotherapy drug from soil bacteria that cuts DNA using iron and oxygen, and that spares the bone marrow while scarring the lungs.

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