Cancer and Oncology Terms

A Pancoast tumor is a lung cancer at the lung's apex that can invade nearby nerves, causing distinctive shoulder and arm symptoms.

Position explains much of its reputation: a tumor deep behind the stomach can grow quietly until it presses on the bile duct or nearby nerves.

A rare cancer that forms in the islets of Langerhans cells (a type of cell found in the pancreas).

An abnormal mass that grows in the beta cells of the pancreas that make insulin.

A cinnamic hydroxamic acid analogue with potential antineoplastic activity.

An aggressive cancer that usually affects the uterus/endometrium, peritoneum, or ovary.

Among thyroid cancers, papillary carcinoma is the most frequently diagnosed type, arising from hormone producing follicular cells and typically growing slowly.

A tumor shaped like a small mushroom, with its stem attached to the epithelial layer (inner lining) of an organ.

A substance being studied in the treatment of diarrhea caused by infection with Clostridium difficile (a type of bacteria that can grow without oxygen) in cancer patients.

A tumor that can sit silently for years or flood the body with adrenaline, depending on where it happens to grow.

Paraneoplastic syndrome describes symptoms caused indirectly by substances a tumor releases, rather than by the tumor's physical growth or spread.

A rare cancer that forms in tissues of one or more of the parathyroid glands (four pea-sized glands in the neck that make parathyroid hormone, which helps the body store and use calcium).

Cancer that forms in a parotid gland, the largest of the salivary glands, which make saliva and release it into the mouth.

The removal of cancer as well as some of the breast tissue around the tumor and the lining over the chest muscles below the tumor.

Kidney tissue does not grow back, and keeping more of it lowers the chance of kidney trouble years after the cancer is gone.

A decrease in the size of a tumor, or in the extent of cancer in the body, in response to treatment.

A decrease in the size of a tumor, or in the extent of cancer in the body, in response to treatment.

A type of radiation therapy given only to the part of the breast that has cancer in it.

A broken bone caused by disease, often by the spread of cancer to the bone.

The stage of cancer (extent of cancer in the body) that is based on how the cells in samples of tissue look under a microscope.