Chapter 19 - Vocabulary
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58 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 adjuvant therapy | assisting primary treatment - drugs are given early in the course of treatment, along with surgery or radiation to attack cancer cells that may be too small to be detected by diagnostic techniques |
| alkylating agents | synthetic chemicals containing alkyl groups that interfere with DNA synthesis |
| anaplasia | loss of differentiation of cells; reversion to a more primitive cell type |
| angiogenesis | process of forming new blood vessels |
| antibiotics | chemical substances, produced by bacteria or primitive plants, inhibit growth of cells and are used in cancer chemotherpy |
| antimetabolites | chemicals that prevent cell division by inhibiting formation of substances necessary to make DNA; used in chemo |
| antimitotics | drugs that block mitosis |
| apoptosis | programmed cell death |
| benign tumor | noncancerous growth (neoplasm) |
| biological response modifiers | substances produced by normal cells that either directly block tumor growth or stimulate the immune system to fight cancer cells |
| biological therapy | use of the body's own defenses to destroy tumor cells |
| carcinogens | agents that cause cancer; chemicals and drugs, radiation and viruses |
| carcinoma | cancerous tumor made up of cells of epithelial origin |
| cellular oncogenes | pieces of DNA that, when broken or dislocated, can cause a normal cell to become malignant |
| chemotherapy | treatment with drugs |
| combination chemo | use several chemotherapeutic agents together for the treatment of tumors |
| dedifferentiation | loss of differentiation of cells; reversion to a more primitive, embryonic cell type; anaplasia or differentiation |
| differentiating agents | drugs that promote tumor cells to differentiate, stop growing, and die |
| electron beams | low-energy beams of radiation for treatment of skin or surface tumors |
| external beam radiation | radiation applied toa tumor from a distant source |
| fields | dimensions of the size of radiation used to treat a tumor from a specific angle |
| fractionation | giving radiation in small, repeated doses |
| grading of tumors | evaluating the degree of maturity of tumor cells or indication of malignant transformation |
| gray (Gy) | unit of absorbed radiation dose |
| gross description of tumor | visual appearance of tumors to the naked eye: cystic, fungating, inflammatory, medullary, necrotic, polypoid, ulcerating and verrucous |
| infiltrative | extending beyond normal tissue boundaries |
| invasive | having the ability to enter and destroy surrounding tissue |
| irradiation | exposure to any form of radiant energy such as light, heat, or x-rays |
| linear accelerator | large electronic device that produces high-energy x-ray beams for treatment of deep-seated tumors |
| malignant tumor | tending to become worse and result in death; having the characteristics of invasiveness, anaplasia, and metastasis |
| mesenchymal | embryonic CT (muscle, fat, cartilage) arise from |
| microscopic description of tumors | appearance under microscope (alveolar, carcinoma in situ, diffuse, dysplastic, epidermoid, follicular, papillary, pleomorphic, scirrhous, undifferentiated) |
| mixed-tissue tumors | composed of different types of tissues |
| modality | method of treatment, such as surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation |
| mucinous | containing mucus |
| neoplasm | new growth; benign or malignant tumors |
| nucleotide | sugar, phosphate, base, arrangement on a gene is genetic code |
| oncogene | region of DNA on tumor cells or in viruses that cause cancer |
| palliative | relieving but not curing symptoms |
| pendunculated | possessing a stem or stalk (penduncle); characteristic of some polypoid tumors |
| pharmacokinetics | study of the distribution in and removal of drugs from the body over a period of time |
| photon therapy | radiation therapy using energy in the form of x-rays or gamma rays |
| proton therapy | subatomic particles (protons) produced by a cyclotron deposit an absorbed dose of radiation at a focused finite point in the body |
| radiation | energy carried by a stream of particles |
| radiocurable tumor | tumor cells that are destroyed by radiation therapy |
| radioresistant tumor | require large doses of radiation to be destroyed |
| radiosensitive tumor | radiation can cause the death of cells without serious damage to surrounding tissue |
| remission | partial or complete disappearance of symptoms of disease |
| sarcoma | cancerous tumor derived from connective or flesh tissue |
| serous | pertaining to a thin, watery fluid (serum) |
| sessile | having no stem; characteristic of some polypoid tumors |
| simulation | study using CT scan or MRI to map treatment before RT is given |
| solid tumor | tumor composed of a mass of cells |
| staging of tumors | system of evaluating the extent of spread of tumors (TNM = tumor-node-metastasis) |
| stereotactic radiosurgery | dose of radiation delivered under stereotactic (highly precise) guidance (gamma knife surgery) |
| steroids | complex, naturally occurring chemicals, such as hormones, that are used in cancer chemotherapy |
| surgical procedures to treat cancer | removing cancerous tissue; cryosurgery, cauterization, en bloc resection, excisional biopsy, exenteration, fulguration, incisional biopsy |
| viral oncogenes | pieces of DNA from viruses that infect a normal cell and cause it to become malignant |
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