Cancer and Oncology Terms

Whether something has come back or merely resurfaced depends on whether it ever truly left, which the word alone does not settle.

A description of what tests and examination can find, which is why complete remission is not the same word as cure.

Initial treatment with anticancer drugs to decrease the signs or symptoms of cancer or make them disappear.

The most common type of kidney cancer.

The most common type of kidney cancer.

Renal cell carcinoma is the most common form of kidney cancer in adults, arising from the tubules that filter blood within the kidney.

Cancer cells that remain after attempts to remove the cancer have been made.

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

Cancer that does not respond to treatment.

The percentage of patients whose cancer shrinks or disappears after treatment.

A childhood eye cancer usually noticed as a white glow in the pupil, and the tumor that revealed how cancer genes work.

A drug that is being studied in the prevention of cancer.

A chemical relative of thalidomide, redeveloped for cancer and now a mainstay of treatment for multiple myeloma.

An antiviral gene that is being studied in the treatment of cancer in patients who have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

A cancer vaccine made with a form of a chicken virus that does not cause disease in humans.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

A malignant tumor of either the central nervous system (CNS) or the kidney.

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a cancer of striated muscle tissue that can occur anywhere in the body but is most common in children.

A drug used to treat some types of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and severe skin conditions, such as psoriasis.

A drug used to increase the number of blood cells, especially platelets, in some cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.