Adenocarcinoma. Cancer arising in a gland

Allogenic. Originating in a genetically different individual, but from the same species.

Analgesic. Pain-relieving drug, such as aspirin.

Anoci-Association. An association based on the Hippocratic motto primum non nocere, meaning that the least that a therapy should do to a patient, is to do no harm.

Antigen. A substance, that on introduction into the body, excites a highly specific response in the form of antibody ( a protein) and / or cells (lymphocytes). An antigen’s specific reactivity with antibody/ cells allows laboratory detection of its presence in blood or tissue. Some cancers carry on their cells and / or secrete into the blood antigens, of which the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is an example. CEA, found most commonly with cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, is detected in the laboratory by demonstrating its reactivity with a specific antibody.

Aphthous ulcer. Small, painful ulcer/s accompanying inflammation of the mouth.

Arteriosclerosis. Thickening and hardening of arteries, a common accompaniment of aging.

Autochthonous. Arising from an individual’s own tissues; not transplanted.

Benign. Not threatening health or life; opposite of malignant; non- cancerous. A benign tumour / lump has microscopic features resembling a normal tissue.

Bronchial cancer. A bronchus is a subdivision of the air-passages beyond the trachea (windpipe). Cancer of the lung usually starts in a large bronchus, and thus is often referred to as bronchial cancer or bronchial carcinoma.

Burkitt’s tumour. A lymphoma with characteristic microscopic picture, commoner at younger age. Also called Burkitt’s lymphoma.

Cancerability. It is the faculty of a normal cell to cancerate and thus turn into a cancer cell.

Cancerogen. A substance supposedly producing cancer. Also called, carcinogen. A substance that assists a cancerogen is called cocancerogen, and one that opposes its action is called anticancerogen. Similarly, cocarcinogen and anticarcinogen.

Cancerogenesis. The production of cancer. Also called carcinogenesis.

Cancerologist. The cancer specialist. Also called oncologist. The speciality is called cancerology or oncology.

Cancerotrophic. An agent promoting the growth of cancer.

Cancerrealism. An approach to cancer based on cancerologic, cytologic and biologic facts. Such facts constitute cancerrealities.

Celluloma. A lump or a mass made up of cells. - oma as a suffix indicates swelling; hence, lipoma, fibroma, astrocytoma, melanoma, etc.

Chemotherapy. Thearpy by drugs.

Cholelithiasis. Formation of stones in the biliary tract. Gall stones.

Choriocarcinoma, gestational. A cancer arising from the chorionic covering of a foetus, and growing in the uterus of the mother.

Chronic. Any illness characterized by long duration, or frequent recurrence over a long time, and often by slowly progressing severity; opposite of acute.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Oftenabbreviated as CLL. A type of slowly growing leukemia characterized by the excessive proliferation of lymphocytes all over. A disease mainly of the middle and old age.

Chronic myeloid leukemia. Often abbreviated as CML. A type of slowly progressing leukemia, characterized by the excessive proliferation of granular white blood cells, starting in the bone marrow and then appearing in the blood and elsewhere. A disease mainly of the middle and old age.

Cirrhosis. A chronic disease characterized by progressive destruction and hardening of the liver.

Collagen. The fibrous protein that provides the scaffold for the animal body, being one of the principal skeletal substance binding cells and tissues together.

Colposcopy. Examination of the vagina and cervix with an instrument called colposcope that provides illumination and magnification

Cytodifferentiation. The process whereby a cell changes its character to turn into another type of cell. Also called differentiation.

Cytokinetic. Related to the process of cell division and proliferation the science of which is called cytokinetics.

Cytologist. One specializing in the study of cells. (Cytology).

Cytotoxic. Toxic or lethal to cells. X-rays and ‘anticancer’ drugs are cytotoxic agents, being indiscriminately toxic to both normal and cancerour cells.

Desenesce. Rejuvenate.

Diabetes mellitus. What is commonly known as diabetes is medically termed as diabetes mellitus (sweet diabetes) because of the patient passing sugar in the urine. Such diabetes is to be distinguished from diabetes insipidus, wherein the patient passes large qualities of ‘insipid’ urine.

Disease. The term is derived from old French desaise (des - absence of, and aise - ease), and really means dis-ease or lack of ease. The etymologic emphasis has been lost in medical science so that the word disease is freely used even though the so-called disease - a cancerous mass in the prostate or the breast - in no way dis-eases the owner.

Dysplasia. Literally, abnormality of a tissue. In current fashion, it implies cellular abnormalities of the lining epithelium of the cervix of the uterus, that ‘a pathologist recognizes as abnormal, yet not to a degree he is willing to call cancer.’

E.coli. Short form for Escherichia coli, a bacterium normally found in billions in the human and animal intestine.

Ectopic. Out of the normal place. A hormone is normally secreted by its special gland. When it is also secreted elsewhere by another tissue, it is called ectopic hormone.

EKGitis. A term to describe the inordinate faith of the doctor or the patient in the diagnostic and prognostic usefulness of the electrocardiogram (ECG), sometimes abbreviated as EKG.

Follow-up. The medical practice of periodically reassessing and recording the condition of a patient following diagnosis and / or treatment.

Gaussian distribution. A theoretical frequency distribution that is bell shaped, symmmetrical and of infinite extent. Also called normal distribution. Many a biologic feature, related to health or disease, exhibits gaussian distribution.

Gerontology. Science of aging, and of the problems of the aged.

Grading. A mode of describing the severity of a cancer by grading it as Grade 1 through 4. The severity of a cancer is assumed to be directly proportional to the departure of its cells from normality when seen through a microscope. A cancer belongs to Grade 1 when most of-its cells are near-normal in appearance and arrangement, and to Grade 4 when most cells look abnormal in appearance and arrangement.

Histological. Related to the study of tissue - normal or cancerous - with a microscope. (Histology, Histologist).

Hodgkin’s disease. A form of lymphoma with special microscopic features.

Hysterectomy. Surgical removal of the uterus.

Iatrogenic. Produced by a doctor. Also called iatral.

Immunological. Related to the science of immunology that studies the nature of antigen / antibody reactions and cells that possibly mediate the immunity (defence mechanisms) of the body against a disease. (Tumour immunity/ immunology, Immunotherapy).

Intercurrent disease. The occurrence of an unrelated disease in a cancer patient.

Leukemia. Cancer of the white blood cells.

Linear accelerator. Specialized machine for X-ray treatment of cancer. Such a machine, by the tremendous acceleration it imparts to electrons, produces high energy, X-ray beams, that allow a patient to be treated ‘in one or two minutes.’

Lumpolytic. An agent that causes dissolution, albeit temporary, of a cancerous lump

Lymphoma. Cancer arising in lymphoid tissues. Unlike in leukemias, the involvement of the bone marrow by the cancerous cells, and their presence in the blood stream are uncommon.

Malignancy. In cancerology, used as a synonym for cancer: hence, malignant tumour or malignant lesion. In medicine in general, malginant implies grave severity of a disease: thus, malignant fever, malignant hypertension, malignant malaria. A malignant tumour shows micro-copic features supposedly characteristic of cancer. Opposite of benign.

Mammography. Study of the breast by X-rays.

Melanoma. A skin cancer arising from its pigmented cells; can also arise from the eye, mucous membrane, and other tissues.

Metastasis. Spread or transfer of disease (cancer, infection) from its site of origin to another site nor directly connected with it. Metastatic, Metastasize).

Multifactorial inheritance. See Polygenic inheritance.

Mitral stenosis. Narrowing of the mitral valve of the heart.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Cancer of the nasopharynx, the region of the throat behind the cavity of the nose.

Nephritis. Inflammation of the kidney.

Nephrosis. Non-inflamatory, degenerative disorder of the kidney.

Neoplastic development. Development of cancer. Neoplasm, literally meaning new (ly formed) tissue connotes cancer, although such process also occurs in inflammation, wound healing, etc.

Ontolysis. Dissolution of one’s own self.

Palliative. Any therapeutic measure that affords relief, but no freedom from the disease. (Palliation, Palliatable).

Pernicious anaemia. A form of anaemia which, before the discovery of its therapy with vitamin B₁₂ was inexorably fatal.

Polygenic inheritance. The occurrence of cancer in an individual is governed by many unidentifiable genes (hence called polygenic / multi-factorial inheritance) which in coordination with the genes of the entire herd, determine whether or not cancer would occur. And such genetic governance in an individual is quantitative and not qualifative. All humans can develop cancer; only some do, for in them the quantitative gene effect is sufficient enough to carry them beyond a certain genetic threshold
Polygenic inheritance has been invoked to explain the occurrence of a wide variety of diseases ranging from congenital malformations like cleft plata to common diseases like peptic ulcer, heart attack, diabetes, or hypertension.

Primary. In cancerology, it refers to the site where the cancer first originates; hence, primary site, primary cancer, primary growth, and so on. When a cancer, taking off from the primary site, establishes itself at other additional site/s physically discontinuous from the primary, it is said to have formed secondary or metastatic cancer. From the secondary site, the whole process of metastasis can be repeated.

Probability. Etymologically and simply, it means likelihood. Epistemologically, it implies a state of knowledge that is less than certainly but greater than ignorance. Epidemiologically, it means certainty at the herd, level which, being numerically smaller than the number forming the herd, must of necessity be a matter of chance, likelihood or probability when expressed at an individual level. Such measurement or quantitation of uncertainty is called probability.
The epidemiologic concept of probability can be best amplified by acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a form of blood cancer. Globally, it occurs at the rate of 2 to 3 cases per 100,000 population per year with little variation from country to country. Here, the certainty is 2 to 3 cases per 100,000 people; who will get it is the quantified uncertainty or probability viz., 1 in 50,000 or 1 in 33,333.

Prognosis. The act or art of foretelling the course of a disease; also, it means the prospect of survival and recovery from a disease. Prophylactic. A preventive or protective measure against a disease. (Prophylaxis).

Radical therapy. Drastic and supposedly thorough treatment for a cancer. Usually applied to surgery, but also to other modes of therapy and to therapeutic combinations. Supraradical therapy represents the extreme of therapeutic radicalism.

Radiotherapy. Treatment of cancer(or any other disease) by X-rays.

Recombinant E.coli. A type of bacterium with a new combination of DNA assembled in the laboratory through the recently developed technics of genetic engineering.

Recruitment. When a normal cell cancerates to join the already existing cancer, it is called recruitment or neocanceration.

Remission. A temporary abatement of the symptoms of a disease.

Sarcoma. Cancer arising in the connective tissue - especially bone, cartilage, muscle, and fascia. Sarcoma differs from carcinoma in that the latter arising from the cells lining the skin and internal organs, or the cells forming glands such as the liver, thyroid, pituitary, etc. The term cancer encompasses both carcinoma and sarcoma, and is freely used, e.g., bone cancer, breast cancer, stomach caner, and so on.

Senesce. Grow old; wither.

Smegma. The cheesy, sebaceous matter that collects between the glans penis and foreskin in a male, or around the clitoris and labia minora in a female.

Spontaneous. Not induced, as by a ‘cancerogen.’

Stage. Staging is the clinical practice of assessing and expressing the evolution and the spread of cancer in a patient. Stages are expressed in numbers and / or letters, e.g., O, I,II, III, IV for cervical or vaginal cancer, or O,A, B₁ ,B₂ , C, D₁ , D₂ , for bladder cancer. Stage O indicates minimal cancer; IV/D₂ indicates most advanced cancer. Staging is to be distinguished from grading, a judgement passed on the microscopic features of a cancer.

Stricture. Abnormal narrowing of the lumen of a tubular organ (gullet, intestine, windpipe), by various causes such as inflammation, cancer, etc.

Syndrome. A set of symptoms and signs that occur together in disease, a symptom complex.

Thanatologists. Specialists in thanatology, the science of death and dying.

Thermography. The technique of converting the temperature pattern in an organ into a photographic image, as an aid to diagnosis.

Thrombophlebitis, migrating. Also called thrombophlebitis migrans. It means the occurrence of inflammation and thrombosis of veins at multiple sites and of a shifting nature; occurs uncommonly in cancers as of the stomach or pancreas.

Trigeminal nerve. The nerve carrying sensations from the head and face region, and innervating muscles of mastication.

Tumour. A lump, swelling, or a protuberance. Often used as connotative with cancer.

Tumour systems. Cells from a cancer that arose once upon a time in an animal are cultured over the years, by being serially bred in test tubes and animals. Such cells when inoculated in specially prepared animals form masses that are called transplanted cancer. Such ‘cancers’ constitute tumour systems against which drugs are tested.

Xerography. Also called xeroradiography. Study of breast by obtaining its image by a technique similar to that operating in a XEROX machine.