Cancer and Oncology Terms

The failure of cancer cells, viruses, or bacteria to respond to a drug used to kill or weaken them.

A cell line made from human prostate cancer cells that is used in the laboratory to study the way prostate cancer cells grow.

Ductal carcinoma is cancer arising from cells lining a duct, most familiar as the most common form of breast cancer.

Cancer has spread from the mucosa (innermost layer) of the colon and/or rectal wall to the submucosa (layer of tissue under the mucosa) of the colon and/or rectal wall.

Cancer has spread (1) through the muscle layer of the colon and/or rectal wall to the serosa (outermost layer) of the colon and/or rectal wall; or (2) through the serosa of the colon and/or rectal…

Cancer (1) may have spread through the mucosa (innermost layer) of the colon and/or rectal wall to the submucosa (layer of tissue under the mucosa) and may have spread to the muscle layer of the…

A staging system used to describe the extent of colorectal cancer.

A type of tumor that begins in the type of cells that give rise to egg cells and is most often found in the ovaries.

Pathologists grade this finding from mild to severe, and the grade, not the label alone, carries most of its meaning.

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

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

Breast cancer that has not spread beyond the breast or the axillary lymph nodes.

A term used to describe cancer that is early in its growth, and may not have spread to other parts of the body.

A study that compares large groups of people instead of individuals for differences in things such as cancer rates.

A study that compares large groups of people instead of individuals for differences in things such as cancer rates.

A substance that comes from a type of sea squirt and is being studied in the treatment of cancer.

A rare, fast-growing tumor of the nervous system or soft tissue that occurs in children and young adults.

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

A procedure to destroy tissue (such as a tumor) using an electric current.

Treatment that generates electrical pulses through an electrode placed in a tumor to enhance the ability of anticancer drugs to enter tumor cells.