Cancer words to know

Talking about cancer may be difficult. Not only may it be overwhelming, but conversations may include words and abbreviations you’ve never heard before. Below we’ve shared an alphabetical list of commonly used words and given a brief description to help you know what they mean.

Glossary of terms:^1,2

• Adenocarcinoma – cancer that starts in the glands in the body, such as the milk glands in the breasts and glands in the prostate  
• Advanced – meaning the cancer has developed and is at a late stage
• Benign – a lump in the body that is slow-growing and doesn't spread to other parts of the body – these aren’t cancerous
• Cancer – a disease that causes cells in your body to grow and divide uncontrollably
• Carcinoma  – a type of cancer that begins in cells that line the outside of our body and organs; most cancers are this type
• Cell – the building blocks of the body that contain your genetic information
• Chemotherapy (also called ‘chemo’) – the name of anti-cancer medicines (also known as cytotoxic – meaning toxic to cells) that destroy cancer cells
• Clinical trials – studies that people with cancer can participate in to test new cancer medicines or treatments against the currently used/older treatments
• Complementary therapy – therapies such as yoga, massage and meditation that may be used in addition medical treatments
• Diagnosis – a confirmation that someone has a particular disease or condition
• DNA – the genetic information found inside our cells
• Fatigue – an extremely tired feeling that doesn’t go away after rest
• Gene – a small section of DNA that carries information about traits we inherit from our parents (such as hair colour and eye colour)
• Genetic – a word used to describe something that is to do with our genes
• Genetic Counsellor – a professional who specialises in genetics and inherited diseases
• Genetic testing – a way of looking for changes or mutations in genes that are linked to certain diseases such as cancer
• Grade  – how cancer cells look under a microscope, specifically how different they look compared to normal cells
• Hormone – chemicals that are made in the body and travel in the bloodstream to have effects on the ways different parts of the body work
• Hormone therapy – some cancers rely on hormones to grow and survive in the body, so these treatments act on hormones to help slow or stop these cancers from growing  
• Immune system – the name for the parts of the body that protect us from infection and illness – including organs, such as the spleen, and cells, such as white blood cells
• Immunotherapy  – treatments that encourage the body’s immune system to fight the cancer
• Informed consent – having sight of, and understanding, all of the information you need to make a decision about your treatment and giving permission for your decisions to be actioned
• Localised – only found in one part of the body
• Lymph node – small, bean-shaped parts of the immune system that are found around the body; they are responsible for removing waste and harmful substance from the body, and contribute towards functioning of the immune system
• Lymphatic system – a part of the immune system that includes lymph nodes and lymph vessels, and is important for fighting infections and removing waste and harmful substances from the body
• Malignant  – a lump in the body that is cancerous; these tend to be fast growing and can spread to other parts of the body
• Metastasis  – cancer that has spread from one part of the body to another (also called secondary cancer or metastatic disease)
• Monoclonal antibodies – a type of treatment that is designed to lock onto proteins on the outside of the cancer cells, flagging them to be killed by the immune system
• Mutation – a change or alteration in a gene which results in it no longer carrying the correct information
• Oncology  – the medical term for cancer (examples of use: oncology department = cancer department; oncology nurse = cancer nurse; oncologist = cancer doctor)
• Pre-cancerous – changes in cells in the body that may become cancer, but don’t always become cancer
• Primary cancer – the first site of cancer in the body (e.g. cancer that was first found in the breast is called breast cancer)
• Prognosis – a prediction of how the illness may progress over time and what the outcome may be
• Radiotherapy – a type of cancer treatment that uses high dose radiation to kill the cancer cells
• Remission – a time when the cancer is under control and health improves; complete remission means all the signs and symptoms of the cancer have gone away, and no cancer cells can be found in the body
• Risk factor – something that increases someone’s chance of getting cancer (examples include getting older, inheriting cancerous genes, or lifestyle factors such as diet)
• Sarcoma – a type of cancer that starts in the connective tissue of the body, which includes muscle, bone, fat and cartilage
• Secondary cancer – when the primary cancer has spread to another part of the body, this is called secondary cancer (also called metastatic disease)
• Side effects – unwanted effects of treatment you may experience, such as feeling extremely tired or having a rash
• Stage  – a way to describe the cancer based on its size and whether it has spread from where it started to another part of the body
• Symptom – a change in the body that may be experienced as a result of having an illness
• Systemic therapy – a treatment that travels throughout the bloodstream
• Targeted therapy – a treatment that specifically targets the differences in cancer cells that allow them to survive and grow in the body
• Therapy  – another word for treatment
• Tissue – a collection of cells of the same type, which work together to perform a job and/or form a part of the body
• Tumour  – a group of cells that aren’t growing the way they should; these can either be benign (non-cancerous) or cancerous   

There may be other words that you want to know more about. We suggest reaching out to your doctor or healthcare team for clarity on anything you're not sure about.