Oncology glossary

Additional treatment given after the main treatment (usually surgery) to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back.

Allogeneic bone marrow transplant uses a matched donor's stem cells; autologous transplant uses the patient's own, harvested and stored beforehand.

A biologic drug that is highly similar to an already-approved reference biologic (like trastuzumab/Herceptin), typically at lower cost.

A robotic-assisted surgical platform manufactured by Intuitive Surgical, used to perform minimally invasive procedures such as robotic prostatectomy through small incisions.

The earliest, non-invasive form of breast cancer, confined to the milk ducts and not yet spread into surrounding tissue.

A professional medical society that publishes evidence-based clinical practice guidelines used by oncologists across Europe and beyond.

Freezing eggs, sperm, or embryos before chemotherapy or radiotherapy begins, since these treatments can affect fertility.

A stereotactic radiosurgery system that focuses beams from many fixed cobalt-60 sources onto a target inside the head, used only for intracranial tumors.

A complication of allogeneic (donor-cell) transplant where the donor's immune cells attack the recipient's own tissues.

A subtype of breast (and some other) cancers where tumor cells have extra copies of the HER2 gene, making them grow faster but also targetable by specific drugs.

Heated chemotherapy delivered directly into the abdominal cavity immediately after surgery removes visible tumor there.

A US-based nonprofit that accredits hospitals worldwide against patient-safety standards; accreditation is voluntary, independently audited, and publicly verifiable.

Laboratory testing of a tumor's DNA to identify specific mutations that may be targetable by particular drugs or that affect prognosis.

Chemotherapy, targeted therapy, or radiotherapy given before surgery to shrink a tumor first.

A fertility-preservation procedure that retrieves and freezes a patient's eggs before cancer treatment begins.

A combined imaging scan that shows both the body's structure (CT) and areas of abnormal metabolic activity (PET), used to find and stage cancer.

Minimally invasive surgery performed through small incisions using a robotic system (such as da Vinci) that the surgeon controls directly.

A procedure that checks the first lymph node(s) a tumor would drain into, to see if cancer has started to spread.

Highly focused, high-dose radiotherapy delivered in one to five sessions instead of the usual 25–30, using systems like CyberKnife or Gamma Knife.

The standard system doctors use to describe how far a cancer has spread, based on Tumor size, lymph Node involvement, and Metastasis.

A breast cancer subtype that tests negative for estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2 — meaning hormone and HER2-targeted therapies don't apply.

A linear accelerator (linac) radiotherapy system manufactured by Varian, used to deliver external-beam treatments including IMRT, VMAT, and SBRT.

A panel of specialists from different disciplines (surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, radiology) who jointly review a case and agree on a recommended plan.

Minimally invasive chest surgery performed through several small incisions using a thoracoscopic camera, instead of a large open incision.