Treatment and Supportive Care Terms
Therapies, treatment plans, rehabilitation, symptom relief, and supportive care. Browse definitions and meanings below.
What is supportive care?
Supportive care addresses the symptoms of an illness and the side effects of treating it, rather than the illness itself. It runs alongside treatment meant to cure or control a condition, not instead of it, and it covers pain, nausea, fatigue, appetite, breathing, and the practical and emotional weight of being unwell.
Two words here are regularly confused. Palliative care is supportive care given when a condition cannot be cured, and it can begin at diagnosis and continue for years alongside active treatment. Hospice care is a narrower category for the final stage of an illness. Palliative care is not a synonym for hospice, and treating the two as one causes a great deal of avoidable distress.
Terms in this topic
Alphabetical order-
An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used to treat Hodgkin lymphoma.
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An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used with radiation therapy to treat low-risk childhood Hodgkin lymphoma.
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The same two letters name a shoulder joint, a ventilator mode and a dosing instruction, so the surrounding note decides which AC is meant.
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An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used with other types of therapy to treat breast cancer, including breast cancer that has spread or come back.
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An abbreviation for a chemotherapy combination used to treat breast cancer.
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Radiation treatment in which the total dose of radiation is given over a shorter period of time (fewer days) compared to standard radiation therapy.
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Mild electrical stimulation of acupuncture points to control symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.
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Another treatment used together with the primary treatment.
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Another treatment used together with the primary treatment.
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Extra treatment aimed at cells no scan can find, given because the visible tumor is rarely the whole story.
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A treatment used to help the immune system fight diseases, such as cancer and infections with certain viruses.
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Allopathic medicine is the conventional biomedical system built on drugs, surgery, and other interventions supported by scientific research, in contrast with alternative approaches.
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Pain can be dulled while touch, movement and awareness stay intact, which is what separates it from being put under.
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What makes it therapy rather than a visit is the written goal, the trained handler and the record of whether it worked.
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Treatment with drugs used to block production or interfere with the action of male sex hormones.
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Treatment that borrows the immune system's own targeting protein, manufactured in bulk and aimed at one chosen molecule.
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Treatment to stop or prevent cancer.
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Treatment with drugs, surgery, or radiation in order to block the production or action of a hormone.
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Because HIV can develop resistance to a single drug relatively quickly, antiretroviral therapy nearly always combines medications from more than one class.
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Aromatherapy applies concentrated plant oils, typically through inhalation or the skin, to promote relaxation and general well being rather than to cure disease.