Cancer and Oncology Terms

A lipoma is a soft, slow-growing lump of fat cells that sits just beneath the skin and is not cancerous.

Liposarcoma is a cancer arising from fat-cell precursors that most often develops in the deep soft tissue of a limb or the abdomen.

A drug that may protect healthy cells from chemotherapy and radiation without inhibiting the effects of these therapies on tumor cells.

Liver cancer includes primary tumors starting in the liver itself and, more commonly, secondary tumors that spread there from cancer elsewhere in the body.

The liver filters blood arriving straight from the gut, which is why so many cancers place their first distant deposit there.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

A substance that contains the metal platinum and may kill cancer cells by damaging their DNA and stopping them from dividing.

A breast cancer that spreads through tissue in single file rather than forming a lump, which is why imaging so often underestimates it.

An invasive malignant cancer confined entirely to the organ where the cancer began.

Treatment that affects cells in the tumor and the area close to it.

Cancer found only in the tissues that make up the wall of the gallbladder.

Cancer is found in the lining of the chest wall and may also be found in the lining of the lung, the lining of the diaphragm (the thin muscle below the lungs and heart that separates the chest from…

Cancer that has spread from where it started to nearby tissue or lymph nodes.

Cancer that has recurred (come back) at or near the same place as the original (primary) tumor, usually after a period of time during which the cancer could not be detected.

A type of lymphoma that tends to grow and spread slowly, and has few symptoms.

An anticancer drug that kills cancer cells by affecting DNA synthesis.

An anticancer drug that reduces the risk of tumor cell growth and reproduction.

A lumpectomy removes a breast tumor along with a margin of surrounding normal tissue while preserving as much of the breast as possible.

The step that converts a shadow on a scan into a name, and the point at which treatment can finally be planned.