Chap 19, Vocabulary Flashcards
adjuvant therapy
Assisting primary treatment. Drugs are given early in the course of treatment, along with surgery or radiation to attack deposits of cancer cells that may be too small to be detected by diagnostic techniques.
alkylating agents
Synthetic chemicals containing alkyl groups that attack NDA, causing strand breaks.
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. They inhibit the growth of cells and are used in cancer chemotherapy.
antimetabolites
Chemicals that prevent cell division by inhibiting formation of substances necessary to make DNA; used in cancer chemotherapy.
antimitotics
Drugs that block mitosis (cell division). Taxol is an antimitotic used to treat breast and ovarian cancers.
apoptosis
Note: CA cells do not undergo apoptosis.
(Normal) Programmed cell death. (Apo- means off, away; -ptosis means to fall.) Normal cells undergo apoptosis when damaged or aging. Some cancer cells have lost the ability to undergo apoptosis, and they live forever.
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.
biological therapy
Use of the body’s own defences to destroy tumor cells.
brachytherapy
Radiotherapy that uses insertion of sealed containers into body cavities or radioactive seeds directly into the tumor.
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 activated by mutations or by dislocation, can cause a normal cell to become malignant.
chemotherapy
Treatment with drugs.
combination chemotherapy
Use of 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 undifferentiation.
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
Genetic material within the nucleus of a cell; controls cell division and protein synthesis.
differentiating agents
Drugs that promote tumor cells to differentiate, stop growing, and die.
differentiation
Specialization of cells.
electron beams
Low-energy beams of radiation for treatment of skin or surface tumors.
encapsulated
Surrounded by a capsule; benign tumors are encapsulated.
external beam irradiation
Applying radiation to a tumor from a source outside the body.
fields
Dimensions of the area of the body undergoing irradiation.
fractionation
Giving radiation in small, repeated doses.
genetic screening
Family members are tested to determine whether they have inherited a cancer-causing gene.
grading of tumors
Evaluating the degree of maturity of tumor cells or indication of malignant transformation.