Lung and Breathing Terms

The membrane in hens' eggs that helps chicken embryos get enough oxygen and calcium for development.

A substance being studied in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.

A research study that compares a particular outcome (such as lung cancer) in groups of individuals who are alike in many ways but differ by a certain characteristic (for example, female nurses who…

Two overlapping processes sit under one abbreviation: inflamed, narrowed airways and air sacs whose walls have broken down.

Narrowing causes symptoms during exertion, but it is a plaque that suddenly ruptures which causes most heart attacks.

Narrowed heart arteries starve the muscle of blood, causing chest pain on effort and, when one blocks, a heart attack.

A drug used to treat certain types of non-small cell lung cancer.

The color depends on how much hemoglobin is traveling without oxygen rather than on the percentage, so anemia can hide it entirely.

Breathing runs automatically because this muscle answers a signal from the phrenic nerves, which arise high in the neck.

A type of advance directive in which a person states that healthcare providers should not perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (restarting the heart) if his or her heart or breathing stops.

A type of advance directive in which a person states that healthcare providers should not perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (restarting the heart) if his or her heart or breathing stops.

When it comes on and in what position narrows the cause far faster than the sensation itself ever does.

Echinacea is an herbal supplement derived from purple coneflower, popularly used in an effort to prevent or shorten the common cold.

The trouble is not only getting air in; damaged lungs have lost the springiness that used to push it back out.

A substance being studied in the treatment of certain types of cancer, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, breast, colon, lung, ovarian, and prostate.

A daily tablet that switches off a growth signal on the cancer cell surface, working best where one specific mutation is present.

Stripped of a nucleus and packed with hemoglobin, this cell trades any ability to repair itself for maximum oxygen carrying capacity.

Cancer has spread outside of the lung in which it began or to other parts of the body.

Surgery to remove a diseased lung, part of the pericardium (membrane covering the heart), part of the diaphragm (muscle between the lungs and the abdomen), and part of the parietal pleura (membrane…

A highly reactive chemical that often contains oxygen and is produced when molecules are split to give products that have unpaired electrons (a process called oxidation).