Cancer and Oncology Terms

A type of external radiation therapy that uses a special machine to make invisible, high-energy particles (protons or helium ions) that kill cancer cells.

A procedure in which the blood supply to the tumor is blocked surgically or mechanically and anticancer drugs are administered directly into the tumor.

Chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy.

The use of drugs, vitamins, or other agents to try to reduce the risk of, or delay the development or recurrence of, cancer.

In cancer prevention, a clinical trial that studies whether taking certain medicines, vitamins, minerals, or food supplements can prevent cancer.

A quality of some drugs used in cancer treatment.

Two treatments given in the same weeks so that one sensitizes the tumor to the other, at the cost of harsher side effects.

Treatment that combines chemotherapy with radiation therapy.

The susceptibility of tumor cells to the cell-killing effects of anticancer drugs.

A laboratory test that measures the number of tumor cells that are killed by a cancer drug.

A drug that makes tumor cells more sensitive to the effects of chemotherapy.

A drug used to treat cancer.

Given in cycles rather than continuously, so the healthy tissues that renew fastest have time to recover between rounds.

A solid lump made of leukemia cells growing outside the marrow, which can appear before anything abnormal shows up in the blood.

A substance being studied in the diagnosis and treatment of glioma (a type of brain cancer) and other types of cancer.

Location drives almost everything here, since a tumor deep inside the liver behaves and is assessed quite differently from one near the intestine.

The name is precise, but it is not always used precisely, and some writing applies it loosely to any cancer of the bile ducts.

Chondrosarcoma is a cancer that forms in cartilage, most often affecting the pelvis, ribs, or the ends of long bones.

CHOP is a four drug chemotherapy combination built from cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone, most often used to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination that is used to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma.