Oncology Terms

Adjuvant Therapy

Extra treatment that works with your major treatment, such as chemotherapy and surgery.

Benign

A growth that is not cancer.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a way to kill cancer cells.  Chemotherapy is made up of drugs that can go into your veins or in a pill.

Chronic

Lasts a long time.

Clinical Trial

Testing a new drug.

Consent

Give permission; agree; say OK.

Contraindication

A sickness you have or medicine you already take that makes a treatment/drug a bad idea.

Dyspnea

Trouble breathing.

Localized Cancer

The cancer is only in one part of the body.

Malignant

There is cancer in the body; it gets worse over time.

Metastasis

The cancer grows and moves to other parts of the body.

Palliative Care

Health care that attends to all of you, not just what is making you sick.

Prognosis

A guess for how things will be in the future.

Radiation

Radiation is energy used to kill cancer cells.  The energy comes from a machine and can go into the cancer.  Some radiation can come in a small capsule and be placed near the tumor.

Staging

The size and place of cancer in the body.