Liver Cancer Glossary

Find all cancer words clearly explained here. We know: it drives you mad all these terms: why can’t doctors speak propper English when you have liver cancer?

Medical Liver Cancer Glossary

Use our alphabetical glossary or find the most used cancer terms further below.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M

N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Most common terms used when a person has liver cancer:

5 FU : 5-fluorouracil : the anticancer drug father would have been given by the oncologist when father would have agreed. Father’s answer was more in the sense of: 5FU? F… you!
Abdominal pain: Any pain in the belly (the abdomen). The following organs can cause pain: stomach, small intestine, colon, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. Father’s belly pain was caused by a growing liver that was pushing against all other organs.

Ablation: Another word for removal or excision. Ablation is usually carried out surgically but there are many other advanced ablations.

Adenocarcinoma: A cancer that develops in the lining or inner surface of an organ. Father’s cancer was also an adenocarcinoma. Of course it is important to know which specific organ is causing the cancer.

Benign: Not cancer. Not malignant. Not "too bad". A benign tumor does not invade surrounding tissue or spread to other parts of the body. A benign tumor may grow but it stays in the same place.

Biopsy: The removal of a sample of tissue for purposes of diagnosis.

Cancer: An abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize (spread). Father’s cancer had spread to his liver and therefore was called: metastatic liver cancer.

Carcinoma: Cancer that begins in the skin or in tissues that line or cover body organs. For example, carcinoma can arise in the breast , colon, liver, lung, prostate, or stomach.

Catheter: A thin, flexible tube . For example, a catheter placed in a vein provides a pathway for giving drugs, nutrients, fluids, or blood products.
Samples of blood can also be withdrawn through the catheter.

CT scan: Computerized tomography scan. Pictures of structures within the body created by a computer that takes the data from multiple X-ray images and turns them into pictures on a screen. CT stands for Computerized Tomography.

Differentiation:

1 The process by which cells become progressively more specialized; a normal process through which cells mature. This process of specialization for the cell comes at the expense of its breadth of potential. Stem cells can, for example, differentiate into secretory cells in the intestine.
2 In cancer, differentiation refers to how mature (developed) the cancer cells are in a tumor. Differentiated tumor cells resemble normal cells and tend to grow and spread at a slower rate than undifferentiated or poorly differentiated tumor cells, which lack the structure and function of normal cells and grow uncontrollably.
Father’s metastatic liver cancer was undifferentiated unfortunately.

Hepatic: Having to do with the liver.

Hepatic artery: An artery that distributes blood to the liver, pancreas and gallbladder as well as to the stomach and duodenal portion of the small intestine.

Hepatocellular carcinoma: A tumor in which the cancer starts during adulthood in cells in the liver . Also called adult primary liver cancer.

Hepatoma: Cancer originating in the liver, in liver cells. More often called hepatocarcinoma or hepatocellular carcinoma.

Jaundice: Yellow staining of the skin and sclerae (the whites of the eyes) by abnormally high blood levels of the bile pigment bilirubin . The yellowing extends to other tissues and body fluids. Although father had liver cancer, he never had jaundice.

Liver: the organ in the upper abdomen that aids in digestion and removes waste products and worn-out cells from the blood.
The liver is the largest solid organ in the body. The liver weighs about three and a half pounds (1.6 kilograms). It measures about 8 inches (20 cm) horizontally (across) and 6.5 inches (17 cm) vertically (down) and is 4.5 inches (12 cm) thick. Read more in: Where is your liver.

Lymph: An almost colorless fluid that travels through vessels called lymphatics in the lymphatic system and carries cells that help fight infections and diseases.

MRI scan – Magnetic Resonance Imaging : A special radiology technique designed to image internal structures of the body using magnetism, radio waves, and a computer to produce the images of body structures. In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the scanner is a tube surrounded by a giant circular magnet. The patient is placed on a moveable bed that is inserted into the magnet. The magnet creates a strong magnetic field that aligns the protons of hydrogen atoms, which are then exposed to a beam of radio waves. This spins the various protons of the body, and they produce a faint signal that is detected by the receiver portion of the MRI scanner. A computer processes the receiver information, and an image is produced. The image and resolution is quite detailed and can detect tiny changes of structures within the body, particularly in the soft tissue, brain and spinal cord, abdomen and joints.

Malignant: Bad. In regard to a tumor, having the properties of a malignancy that can invade and destroy nearby tissue and that may spread (metastasize) to other parts of the body.

Metastasis:

1. The process by which cancer spreads from the place at which it first arose as a primary tumor to distant locations in the body.
2. The cancer resulting from the spread of the primary tumor. For example, someone with melanoma may have a metastasis in their brain. And a person with colon cancer may, fortunately, show no metastases.

Oncologist: A physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer .

Palliative treatment: When the medical world has no real cure… To palliate a disease is to treat it partially and insofar as possible, but not cure it completely. Palliation cloaks a disease. Also sometimes called symptomatic treatment. It’s here where they tend to use the term "Quality of Life" frequently.

Prognosis:

1. The expected course of a disease .
2. The patient’s chance of recovery.
The prognosis predicts the outcome of a disease and therefore the future for the patient .

Radiofrequency ablation: The use of electrodes to generate heat and destroy abnormal tissue.

Recurrence: The return of a sign, symptom or disease after a remission. The reappearance of cancer cells at the same site or in another location is, unfortunately, a familiar form of recurrence.

Remission: The state of absence of disease activity in patients with known chronic illness. It is commonly used to refer to absence of active cancer.

Resection: Surgical removal of part of an organ.

Serum: The clear liquid that can be separated from clotted blood. Serum differs from plasma, the liquid portion of normal unclotted blood containing the red and white cells and platelets. It is the clot that makes the difference between serum and plasma.

Staging: In regard to cancer, the process of doing examinations and tests to learn the extent of the cancer, especially whether it has metastasized (spread) from its original site to other parts of the body. Read more about Stage 4 liver cancer.

Tumor: An abnormal mass of tissue. Tumors are a classic sign of inflammation, and can be benign or malignant (cancerous). There are dozens of different types of tumors. Their names usually reflect the kind of tissue they arise in, and may also tell you something about their shape or how they grow. For example, a medulloblastoma is a tumor that arises from embryonic cells (a blastoma) in the inner part of the brain (the medulla). Diagnosis depends on the type and location of the tumor. Tumor marker tests and imaging may be used; some tumors can be seen (for example, tumors on the exterior of the skin) or felt (palpated with the hands).

X-ray:

1. High-energy radiation with waves shorter than those of visible light. X-rays possess the properties of penetrating most substances (to varying extents), of acting on a photographic film or plate (permitting radiography), and of causing a fluorescent screen to give off light (permitting fluoroscopy). In low doses X-rays are used for making images that help to diagnose disease, and in high doses to treat cancer . Formerly called a Roentgen ray.
2. An image obtained by means of X-rays.