Abbreviations used when discussing cancer

A very few computer abbreviations are listed separately from medical abbreviations and at the end.

Another new feature is abbreviations for well-known hospitals and cancer centers that people use a lot.

A few jokes have crept in over several versions. Actually, the more times this list is updated, the weirder our minds get, and some of the definitions are getting weird with it.

Much is omitted in the way of explanations. This is, after all, supposed to be just an abbreviation list and glossary, so it should be somewhat abbreviated as well.

If you are looking for a particular medication and don't find it in this list, please take a look at:

Please let us know if you have suggestions for additions to this list by contacting:

Adria - Adriamycin, trade name for doxorubicin, a chemo drug, see lifetime limit

allo - allogenic transplant, either bone marrow or stem cells, when the patient gets the transplant from another person with "matching" cell characteristics

AT - Chemotherapy treatment regimen comprised of Adriamycin and one of the taxanes, either Taxol or Taxotere

ATC - Dose-dense chemotherapy treatment regimen currently in trials for high-risk breast cancer; typically, protocols are 3x Adriamycin followed by 3x Taxol followed by 3x Cytoxan

BCS - Breast conservation surgery, sometimes called lumpectomy or quadrantectomy

bid - twice each day; it is understood that this means approximately every twelve hours

bolus - a sheet of material used by radiation oncologists and laid over an area to be radiated when the dose of radiation is to be delivered to a shallower depth, usually to the skin, than it would normally be delivered; the bolus feels rather gelatinous and flops around somewhat when the technicians place it on the body

BRCA1 & BRCA2 (pronounced by some people as bracka one and bracka two) - Genes, prone to multiple mutations, that are involved in about five percent of breast cancer

CA-125 - A tumor marker used to monitor ovarian cancer, highly predictive of recurrence for most ovarian cancer patients

CAF - Chemotherapy treatment regimen which is the same as CA but with 5-FU (fluorourocil) added; sometimes people write this asCAFx4, which means 4 treatment cycles using CAF)

CAT scan - Computerized axial tomography, a type of scanning system, usually of the chest and abdomen; also known as CT scan

CBC - Complete blood count; this shows the amount of the various biological components of blood, including white blood cells, red blood cells, platelets and, sometimes differentials; details can be found in What ARE Those Blood Tests?

CBE - Clinical breast exam; an examination of the breast by a physician or nurse; should be done at least once per year

CEA - Carcinoembryonic antigen; a monoclonal tumor marker sometimes used to monitor breast cancer patients; can also indicate other cancers and certain inflammatory conditions, so not specific enough to be sole indicator of the presence of breast cancer

CEF - Chemotherapy treatment regimen comprised of Cytoxan plus epirubicin plus 5-FU (generally not used in the US because epirubicin is not usually available)

Clinical trials - divided into three phases which. progressively, bring a pharmaceutical or procedure closer to use in humans as standard therapy

Phase I - Following in vitro and animal testing, this is the first level of the clinical trials procedure by which new drugs or combinations of drugs are tested and approved in human beings. A small number of patients are given a new treatment. The focus is on determining safety, dosage and short-term effectiveness.

Phase II Clinical Trial - The second level of clinical trials testing in human beings. A larger number of participants are enrolled than Phase I. Phase II trials also focus on effectiveness and on chronic side effects over a longer period.

Phase III Clinical Trial - The final level of clinical trials testing. Here, there is a comparison of
experimental treatments with an established testing treatment for safety, effectiveness, dosage and side effects. Usually such trials are multi-centric and involve large number of patients. Optimally, they are "blinded" so that neither researchers nor patients know which treatment they are receiving. This is not always possible.

contralateral - the organ on the other side of your body, usually referring to the contralateral breast, but can be any other paired organ; see also ipsilateral

CR - Complete remission (overall situation) or complete response (specific situation); frequently appears as clinical CR; see also PR

CT - Computerized axial tomography, a type of scanning system, usually of the chest and abdomen; also known as CAT scan

Differentials - Part of some CBCs if requested by physician (and it usually is); shows the amounts of the various kinds of white cells in the blood; details may be found in What ARE Those Blood Tests?

DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid; a structure in the nucleus of every cell that contains genetic information

Epoetin - a biopharmaceutical used to boost red blood cell production; brand name is ProCrit

ER/PR - Estrogen receptors and progesterone receptors on the surface of tumor (and other) cells; for example, ER+ is estrogen-positive and PR- is progesterone negative

Free flap - Free Transverse Rectus Abdominis Musculocutaneous Flap. one method of breast reconstruction

FU - reaction of some list members to pushy postings (joke; see CAF above for real meaning)

GCSF - Granulocyte colony stimulating factor that stimulates recover of the white blood cells from chemotherapy (brand name is Neupogen)

GM-CSF -granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor that stimulates recovery of the white blood cells from chemotherapy

Gugals - combined term for "guys and gals" on the Breast-Cancer List

HDC - high dose chemotherapy, often used with one of the following:

BMT - Bone marrow transplant
SCR - Stem cell rescue
PSCT - Peripheral stem cell transplant
PSCR - Peripheral stem cell rescue
PBPC - Peripheral blood progenitor cells

HER2 -	1. Human EGF-like Receptor Number 2
	2. Short for HER2-ECD (Extra Cellular Domain)
	3. Same as c-erbB-2
	4. Our dismayed, but supportive, reaction when another person finds the Breast-Cancer list seeking help for herself or a friend or family member.

HRT - Hormone replacement therapy, estrogen replacement in non-breast cancer patients, usually Tamoxifen or another SERM for breast cancer patients

IBC - inflammatory breast cancer; probably the least common form of breast cancer; can be infiltrating or not; can be ductal (most often) or lobular (least common)

ICF - Informed consent form (required for any study; must have been reviewed by the institution's IRB)

IDC - Infiltrating ductal carcinoma; probably the most common form of breast cancer

IRB - Institutional Review Board; set up by each institution to review the procedures and processes under which studies are performed; the objective is to insure that participants are treated in accordance the best standards of treatment for their particular disease

Lat flap - Latissimus dorsi flap reconstruction, one type of breast reconstruction

lifetime limit - certain chemotherapy drugs (mostly anthrocylines such as Adriamycin and its cousins) are particularly toxic to the heart muscle; most oncdocs will impose a lifetime limit on each patient, depending a little on pre-treatment cardiac function, for the amount of these chemos

Medication equivalents list - a list of common and generic medication names showing equivalent medications on the YANA website

meters squared - the amount of chemotherapy received by patients needs to be consistent across the board; one way to keep this amount consistent is to base treatment on some measure of the volume of the body; your oncdoc has a scale with a sliding pointer that relates your weight to your height and then calculates your "meters squared" which is approximately the amount of skin area you have

Mets - Metastases (pronounced muh-tass-tuh-sees); when cells break loose from the original cancer site and "land" elsewhere in the body such as breast cancer mets to the liver, lung, or bone; the tumor cells still have the same characteristics as they did when they were attached in the original tumor

Nx - lymph nodes cannot be, or have not been, microscopically assessed; see TNM system

N=1, N=7, etc. - how many nodes in a sample had cancer, as used on this list (actually, some on the net omit the = sign, with possible confusion of a "N1" listing; Does this notation mean there is one positive lymph node or that there are positive notes as in the TNM system?); some on the list write the number of nodes as 2/4LN meaning 2 of 4 lymph nodes excised at surgery had metastatic disease in them

NCI - National Cancer Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

NED - No evidence of disease; sometimes used to describe to a patient's having no evidence of disease upon clinical examination and upon review of scans and bloods

NIH - National Institutes of Health, started by FDR, as Christopher Reeves explained at the 1996 Democratic Convention

PDQ - 1. Physician Data Query - information from NCI
2. The speed with which you should seek diagnosis of suspicious lumps

PDT - Photodynamic therapy; relatively new therapy using a light source which activates targeted delivery of a chemotherapy drug; most often used with skin metastases

peau d'orange - a characteristic changing of skin texture and tone associated with inflammatory breast cancer; the skin takes on the texture of an orange peel, being puckered or puffy; the color of the skin usually changes to red, purple, or yellow/brown, sometimes looking like various stages of a bruise

qd - once each day; it is understood that this means to do whatever is prescribed at about the same time each day

qid - four times each day;it is understood that this means approximately every six hours

rad - radiotherapy (given by radiation oncologists in departments of therapeutic radiation)

rays - radiotherapy (given by radiation oncologists in departments of therapeutic radiation)

SEER - Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results; program of the National Cancer Institute to gather, track, and report cancer incidence and mortality; SEER data are published periodically for certain states along with national summaries

SERM - Selective estrogen receptor modulator; medication that attaches to estrogen receptors and "blocks" estrogen molecules from attaching

S-phase - proliferative index, percentage of tumor cells actively dividing at a given point in time

stem cells -the cells that come out of your bone marrow and gradually differentiate themselves to the various kinds of cells in your blood and lymph system; for people undergoing SCR, these cells are separated out from the remainder of the blood cells to be used for future reinfusion

T0, T1, T2, T3 - size of tumor; see TNM system

T0 is no evidence of primary tumor
T1 is <2 cm (less then 2 cm)
T2 is 2-5 cm
T3 is >5 cm

TAM - tamoxifen

Taxanes - A relatively recently developed class of chemotherapy drugs, including taxol and taxotere

TNM system - one of the systems for staging cancers at diagnosis, where:

T=tumor size
N=whether lymph nodes have cancer
M=whether cancer has metastasized to other organs

tid - three times each day; it is understood that this means approximately every eight hours

TPN - Total parenteral nutrition, also known as baggie food; how you may receive nutrition if you become unable to take food by mouth

TRAM-flap - Transverse Rectus Abdominis Musculocutaneous Flap, one type of breast reconstruction

ultra - Ultrasound, used to diagnose breast, abdominal and gynecological cancers

x4 (or other number) - used when describing number of chemo treatment cycles, such as CEFx6)

1/4 or 4/16 - 1 node positive out of four or 4 nodes positive out of 16 (also written 1/4 LN by some)

City of Hope - City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California (in the Los Angeles area)
Dana-Farber - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston
Fox-Chase - Fox-Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia
Hopkins - Johns Hopkins University Cancer Center, Baltimore
The Hutch - Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle
Jonsson - Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, Los Angeles
Karmanos - Barbara Karmanos Cancer Center at Wayne State University, Detroit
Lombardi - Georgetown University's Comprehensive Cancer Center
MD Anderson - University of Texas, Houston Comprehensive Cancer Center
MSK or MSKCC - Memorial Sloan-Kettering, New York City
NCI - National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD
Norris - Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles
PeterMac - Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Roswell or Roswell Park Park - Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY
Royal Marsden - The Royal Marsden Hospital, London, England
UMinn - Univ of Minnesota

BTW - By the way
FWIW - For what it's worth
HA - Headache from reading all these abbreviations!
HTH - Hope this helps
IMHO - computer e-mail speak for "In my humble opinion"
IMO - In my opinion
ISP- Internet Service Provider
LOL - Laughing out loud
URL - Universal Resource Locator; an example is the purpose that those http: or ftp: reference lines serve when you're working on the 'net

net	1. a loose sort of term for the Internet or other things 2. what you used to wear on occasion when you had hair

ROTFL - Rolling on the floor laughing
RTFM - Read the full manual, but adjective is not really "full"
snip - used to reveal that the writer deleted something. PLEASE DO THIS when responding to email
Web - World Wide Web (data and graphics parts of the Internet)
WWW - World Wide Web (data and graphics parts of the Internet)

Joane Cardinal-Schubert's first version was 0.1; Musa Mayer's was 0.2. John Bonine's additions make it 0.3. Laurel's clean up made it 0.4. John posted 0.5, cleaned up and alphabetized. Version 0. 6 included contributions by Marianne Brosseau and Gilles Frydman. Version 0.7 had corrections and contributions by Marianne and also Nancy Dyson. Version 0.8 had additions by Ken Herting, Musa, Marianne, and Christina. Version 0.81, with fill-ins by Bob Stafford, was maintained by John Bonine. We greatly appreciate the permission of Musa Mayer and O'Reilly & Associates to include some definitions from her book, Advanced Breast Cancer: Living with Metastatic Disease. Finally, we appreciate the contributions of several medical advisors to You Are Not Alone who made numerous positive suggestions and strongly advocated getting this particular page out on the web as soon as possible.

Abbreviations frequently used while discussing cancer