Palliative treatment: Palliativetreatmentis a symptomatic treatment given to relieve the symptoms and reduce the suffering caused by serious or life-threatening disease like cancer. It focuses on relieving pain and suffering of patients without an attempt to cure the disease. It provides emotional, physical, and spiritual care. It improves the quality of life of patients and increase life expectancy. Palliative treatment, given together with other cancer treatments, begins with diagnosis and continues through treatment and beyond.
Pap smear: Papanicolaou smear or Pap smear is a screening test for cervical cancer. It is used to detect cancerous cells in the cervix early, as well as to detect abnormal cells in the cervix before they become cancerous. It is a painless test for most women done in a doctor’s clinic during a pelvic exam. During a Pap smear, a cell sample from the cervix is taken with a small wooden spatula or brush and examined under the microscope. It is advisable to have a Pap test every 2 years starting at age 21. Abnormal results from a Pap smear do not necessarily indicate cancer. Other conditions such as inflammation and sexually transmitted diseases can also cause abnormal changes in cells.
Partial response: When there is a decrease in the size or extent of a tumour in response to treatment it is called partial response or partial remission. Most of the signs and symptoms of cancer are gone.
Pathologic fracture: Fracture of bone due to weakening of its structure caused by a disease is called pathologic fracture. It occurs most often due to spread of cancer to the bone. It may also be seen in osteomalacia or osteomyelitis.
PET scan: Positron emission tomography scan or a PET scan uses radioactive material (tracer) to produce 3D colour images of areas within our body. The emission from the tracer is detected in cancer affected organs and tissues by a scanner and reproduced as images and analysed by a computer.
Precancerous lesions: Lesions, which precede the development of full-blown cancer that are not cancer but are more likely to become cancerous, if left untreated. Skin cancers start as precancerous lesions. A precancerous (premalignant) condition is a disease or syndrome, which, if left untreated, may lead to cancer. It is a generalized state associated with a significantly increased risk of cancer.
Prostate cancer: Prostate cancer forms in tissues of the prostate (a gland in the male reproductive system) and is one of the leading causes of cancer in men above the age of 60. Most cases could be slow growing and may even go undetected and not cause any problem. Some could be aggressive and can spread to other parts of the body and are difficult to treat. It usually presents with difficulty and pain during urination, blood in the urine along with sexual dysfunction. Advanced cases may present with bone pain in addition to the urinary symptoms. Prostate cancer is very rare before the age of 40 but the risk increases with age and most cases are detected in the late 60s.
Read more about causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer.
Radiotherapy: Radiotherapy uses ionizing radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumours. It is administered either externally through a machine (external beam radiotherapy) or internally by placing radioactive material in the body near tumour cells (brachytherapy). Radioactive substances may also be injected into the blood in systemic radiotherapy. Radiotherapy targets specific areas and damages the genetic material of the cells. The cancer cells are damaged and die whereas the normal cells recover. It is given in fractions in order to help the normal cells recover between two courses.
Recurrence: Whena person is diagnosed with cancer again after a period of latency, it is called recurrence. A cancer may recur at the same place or at another place in the body.
Regression: A decrease in the size or the extent of a tumour in the absence of or inadequate treatment is called regression.
Relapse: The return of a cancer or its signs and symptoms after a period of improvement is called cancer relapse.
Remission: A remission is a decrease or absence of medical signs and symptoms of a chronic illness like cancer that are incurable as a result of treatment. The cancer is expected to manifest again in the future. If all the signs and symptoms of the disease are gone it is called complete remission. In partial remission, though the disease is significantly improved by treatment, traces of the disease are still present.
Sarcoma: A malignant tumour of the bone, cartilage, muscle, fat, blood vessels or other connective tissue is called sarcoma.
Screening: Cancer screening checks for disease when there are no symptoms. It aims to detect cancer before symptoms appear to better the chances of curing it. Screening may involve blood tests, urine tests, etc. Mammogram for breast cancer, Pap test for cervical cancer and colonoscopy for colon cancer are some of the examples of cancer screening tests. Sometimes a genetic test may be done for screening in a person who has a risk of developing an inherited disease.
Secondary tumour: A secondary tumour is a term used for a cancer that has spread to its current location from another part of the body.
Skin cancer: Skin cancer originates in the tissues of the skin. There are several types of skin cancer depending on the type of skin cell they arise from. Basal cell carcinoma forms in the lowest layer of the epidermis of skin whereas squamous cell carcinoma forms in squamous cells at the surface of the skin. Melanoma originates in skin pigment producing cells called melanocytes. The main cause of skin cancer is exposure to the ultraviolet radiation from sun.
Stable cancer: When acancer is neither shrinking nor growing in extent or severity it is termed as stable. It means that the cancer has not spread to any other part of the body and also, no new tumours have developed.
Staging: It is a process of determining the size and extent of the cancer through exams and tests. A number from I-IV is assigned to a cancer based on its size, invasion to adjacent organs or lymph nodes and spread to distant organs. Staging helps in planning the best treatment.
T lymphocyte: Also called T cell and thymocyte, T lymphocyte is a type of white blood cell which helps control immune responses. It develops from stem cells in the bone marrow and later moves to the thymus where it matures. T lymphocytes are of two types – killer cells and helper cells. The killer T cells are specialized in attacking viruses and sometimes also bacteria. They may also help fight cancer. Helper T cells are the main regulators of the immune response. They activate killer T cells and B lymphocytes.
Targeted therapy: A type of treatment that targets specific cancer cells. Certain drugs or substances like monoclonal antibodies used for targeted therapy identify and attack specific molecules necessary for tumour growth. Unlike other treatments, targeted therapy does not interfere simply with all rapidly dividing cells and hence has fewer side effects.
Tumour: Tumour is anabnormal mass of tissue. It is a result of uncontrolled multiplication of cells and may be benign or malignant.
Ultrasonography: A diagnostic imaging technique in which high-energy sound waves (ultrasound) are used for imaging soft tissues and internal organs to detect diseases or lesions. The ultrasound is reflected from internal tissues or organs as echoes whose patterns are shown on the screen of the ultrasound machine as an image (sonogram).
Read more about causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.
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