Glossary of Treatments and Terms

lilacbrroller

HI, all. I thought it would be a good resource for this board to have a section where users could explain the different treatments we can have, what they are and where to obtain them, and when in the course of treatment they are used.  For instance, what is TACE? What is HIPEC? What are all of the different chemo drugs out there?  What is KRAS and why is it important? (I got the idea for this when someone defined HIPEC as the "mother of all surgeries" !!!)

I'll start by defining FOLFOX, which I have had the pleasure to experience first-hand:

FOLFOX is a name for a particular type of chemotherapy consisting of an intervenous cocktail of two drugs and a vitamin:  oxaliplatin (with the vitamin leucovorin), and 5-FU (flourouracil).  In the US, FOLFOX is a "first line treatment" which is the first type of chemotherapy given to patients after they are diagnosed, usually stage IV patients and sometimes stage III.  It is FDA approved.  If patients can tolerate it, twelve treatments are given, with a two week break in between.

side effects: numerous but varies by patient.  Most common side effect with oxaliplatin is cold sensitivity.

** Please add to this post with whatever you know or have experienced. If anyone comes up with a good classification system, we can all edit our posts.

enjoy

Karin

PhillieG

Hi Karen

There is one here here but there may be one that had been done made by one of us. I'll see if I can track it down 

lilacbrroller

PhillieG said:

Hi Karen

There is one here here but there may be one that had been done made by one of us. I'll see if I can track it down 

add stuff..

If you can't find it, add your own information to this thread. After what... 9 1/2 years, you should know a lot!!!

LivinginNH

Hi,
The Colon Club has a good

Hi,

The Colon Club has a good one under "Topics".  It covers most everything.

lilacbrroller

LivinginNH said:

Hi,
The Colon Club has a good

Hi,

The Colon Club has a good one under "Topics".  It covers most everything.

super

that's great but I wish people would post one here... any input?

LivinginNH

lilacbrroller said:

super

that's great but I wish people would post one here... any input?

Greta would probably need to

Greta would probably need to open up a "discussion" board for this topic, otherwise a normal post would just get lost over time.

johnnybegood

PhillieG said:

Hi Karen

There is one here here but there may be one that had been done made by one of us. I'll see if I can track it down 

hey phil

i typed list of terms in the search bar and i found the one that was posted by "Trainer" in 2008 i remember that there was one posted when i was first dx.i know nothing about computers since you can do so much more than me if there is someway you could post that but not bring up the whole post as there is alot of our friends and warriors on that post who are not with us,just a suggestion or if any one else knows how to do it because it might help out our newbies...Godbless...johnnybegood

KathiM

Here you are:

DX - diagnosis
TX - treatment
PX - prognosis
OS - overall survival
PFS - progression free survival - used to describe the time that a patient is stable, or showing no worsening/progression of the disease
DFS - disease free survival - used to describe the time that a patient is NED
NED - no evidence of disease
MRD - minimal residual disease
LN - Lymph node
PSD - peritoneal surface disease - means that the cancer has spread to the chest cavity and is on the surface of the organs rather than within the organs
HIPEC - heated chemotherapy used to wash out the peritoneal/abdominal cavity
Met - metastasis
Lesion - something fishy, usually a tumor
Neoplastic process - potentially cancerous activity
Imaging - generally some type of scan or X-ray
PS - Performance Status - a term used to describe your overall ability to function, dressing yourself, eating, physical activity, etc.

Bevacizumab (Avastin) - a drug used to stop new blood vessels from forming
Anti-angiogenesis - the process of stopping new blood vessels from forming
VEGF - Vascular endothelial growth factor - the part of the cancer cell dealing with new blood vessel formation

Peripheral Neuropathy - a side effect of chemotherapy in which the nerves in your extremities are damaged and you experience numbness and some loss of use of your hands and feet

Anti-emetic - any kind of drug that is used to combat nausea and vomiting

Adjuvant - chemo treatment that follows surgical removal of all the cancer they can find -- it generally refers to treatment done when the patient is presumably cancer free
Neo-adjuvant - chemo that is done prior to surgery both to potentially shrink any known lesions and also to offer some systemic treatment to prevent new lesions from cropping up

Resection - surgically removing a big chunk of something - like your colon or your liver. It offers the best potential for a curative surgery because they can usually take out the cancer, and also some buffer zone tissue which is referred to as the "margin."

Margins - the amount of cancer free tissue surrounding the tumor - they determine this when the resected tissue is sent to the pathology lab
Radial margin - the amount of chest wall that was left cancer free

RFA - Radio Frequency Ablation - this is a localized treatment for tumors where a probe is inserted into the tumor and heated with radio waves to cook the cancer to death. It is often done when the lesions in question cannot be resected for some reason.
Cryoablation - same idea as RFA, but they freeze the tumor instead of cooking it

ADL = activities of daily life (eating, dressing, showering, etc.)
MBC = metastatic breast cancer

MRC-metastatic rectal cancer
TNM = an attempt at universal staging evaluation that attempts to unify across countries analysis tumors and extent of spread of disease. T refers to tumor and can be modified X-4, N refers to node involvement and is modified X-2 and M refers to metastasis to distant organs, modified X, 1 or 0. The number that follows T or N indicates severity; X indicates it can't be assessed yet, and the number that follows M indicates presence (X for not assessed, 1 for present, 0 for not present.). It will be types out as TnNnMn.
T4N2M1 means tumor spread to distant organs, node involvement to 4 or more regional lymph nodes, mets-yes and is equal to a Stage IV diagnosis. More explanation of the TNM system: http://cancerstaging.blogspot.com/2005/ ... ectum.html

Bloodwork:
CBC: Complete blood count, including both hematology and serum chemistry analysis. Hematology can usually be run quickly, and checks things like white counts and red blood cell counts. Serum chem analysis takes longer (the machine runs more slowly.)

TPN = total parenteral nutrition, or nutrient liquid delivered via IV or PICC line.

CR = Complete response to chemotherapy
PR = Partial response to chemotherapy
PD = Progressive disease while on chemotherapy

Refractory - resistant or unresponsive to various chemotherapy treatments

onc = our little term to mean oncologist

 

palliative = treatments necessary to make patient more comfortable or have less pain

 

Hugs, Kathi

lilacbrroller

KathiM said:

Here you are:

DX - diagnosis
TX - treatment
PX - prognosis
OS - overall survival
PFS - progression free survival - used to describe the time that a patient is stable, or showing no worsening/progression of the disease
DFS - disease free survival - used to describe the time that a patient is NED
NED - no evidence of disease
MRD - minimal residual disease
LN - Lymph node
PSD - peritoneal surface disease - means that the cancer has spread to the chest cavity and is on the surface of the organs rather than within the organs
HIPEC - heated chemotherapy used to wash out the peritoneal/abdominal cavity
Met - metastasis
Lesion - something fishy, usually a tumor
Neoplastic process - potentially cancerous activity
Imaging - generally some type of scan or X-ray
PS - Performance Status - a term used to describe your overall ability to function, dressing yourself, eating, physical activity, etc.

Bevacizumab (Avastin) - a drug used to stop new blood vessels from forming
Anti-angiogenesis - the process of stopping new blood vessels from forming
VEGF - Vascular endothelial growth factor - the part of the cancer cell dealing with new blood vessel formation

Peripheral Neuropathy - a side effect of chemotherapy in which the nerves in your extremities are damaged and you experience numbness and some loss of use of your hands and feet

Anti-emetic - any kind of drug that is used to combat nausea and vomiting

Adjuvant - chemo treatment that follows surgical removal of all the cancer they can find -- it generally refers to treatment done when the patient is presumably cancer free
Neo-adjuvant - chemo that is done prior to surgery both to potentially shrink any known lesions and also to offer some systemic treatment to prevent new lesions from cropping up

Resection - surgically removing a big chunk of something - like your colon or your liver. It offers the best potential for a curative surgery because they can usually take out the cancer, and also some buffer zone tissue which is referred to as the "margin."

Margins - the amount of cancer free tissue surrounding the tumor - they determine this when the resected tissue is sent to the pathology lab
Radial margin - the amount of chest wall that was left cancer free

RFA - Radio Frequency Ablation - this is a localized treatment for tumors where a probe is inserted into the tumor and heated with radio waves to cook the cancer to death. It is often done when the lesions in question cannot be resected for some reason.
Cryoablation - same idea as RFA, but they freeze the tumor instead of cooking it

ADL = activities of daily life (eating, dressing, showering, etc.)
MBC = metastatic breast cancer

MRC-metastatic rectal cancer
TNM = an attempt at universal staging evaluation that attempts to unify across countries analysis tumors and extent of spread of disease. T refers to tumor and can be modified X-4, N refers to node involvement and is modified X-2 and M refers to metastasis to distant organs, modified X, 1 or 0. The number that follows T or N indicates severity; X indicates it can't be assessed yet, and the number that follows M indicates presence (X for not assessed, 1 for present, 0 for not present.). It will be types out as TnNnMn.
T4N2M1 means tumor spread to distant organs, node involvement to 4 or more regional lymph nodes, mets-yes and is equal to a Stage IV diagnosis. More explanation of the TNM system: http://cancerstaging.blogspot.com/2005/ ... ectum.html

Bloodwork:
CBC: Complete blood count, including both hematology and serum chemistry analysis. Hematology can usually be run quickly, and checks things like white counts and red blood cell counts. Serum chem analysis takes longer (the machine runs more slowly.)

TPN = total parenteral nutrition, or nutrient liquid delivered via IV or PICC line.

CR = Complete response to chemotherapy
PR = Partial response to chemotherapy
PD = Progressive disease while on chemotherapy

Refractory - resistant or unresponsive to various chemotherapy treatments

onc = our little term to mean oncologist

 

palliative = treatments necessary to make patient more comfortable or have less pain

 

Hugs, Kathi

Yee haw!

Terrific - thanks". Im on an iPad so will write more laterThank you!!!

KathiM

lilacbrroller said:

Yee haw!

Terrific - thanks". Im on an iPad so will write more laterThank you!!!

You are welcome...

But this list is a bit old.....2008....so, much has changed (and I've lost touch with current treatments)...

my 'poison' for rectal was Cisplatin/5FU neoadjuvant, for the breast, ACT (Adriamycin, Cytoxin, Taxol)...

I don't believe the Adriamycin is currently used as first line treatment, as was in my case, because of the heart damage, also as was in my case....But it kept me alive, so I am adjusting to being just part of the 'walking wounded'....*smile*

KRAS needs to be added to this list, as well as other, newer treatments....But it's a starting place....

 

Hugs, Kathi

johnnybegood

KathiM said:

You are welcome...

But this list is a bit old.....2008....so, much has changed (and I've lost touch with current treatments)...

my 'poison' for rectal was Cisplatin/5FU neoadjuvant, for the breast, ACT (Adriamycin, Cytoxin, Taxol)...

I don't believe the Adriamycin is currently used as first line treatment, as was in my case, because of the heart damage, also as was in my case....But it kept me alive, so I am adjusting to being just part of the 'walking wounded'....*smile*

KRAS needs to be added to this list, as well as other, newer treatments....But it's a starting place....

 

Hugs, Kathi

thanks Kathi

i knew there would be someone out there who would know how to get that old post here where the newbies could see ,i knew it was very helpful to me in 2008...Godbless...johnnybegood

Coloncancerblows

KathiM said:

Here you are:

DX - diagnosis
TX - treatment
PX - prognosis
OS - overall survival
PFS - progression free survival - used to describe the time that a patient is stable, or showing no worsening/progression of the disease
DFS - disease free survival - used to describe the time that a patient is NED
NED - no evidence of disease
MRD - minimal residual disease
LN - Lymph node
PSD - peritoneal surface disease - means that the cancer has spread to the chest cavity and is on the surface of the organs rather than within the organs
HIPEC - heated chemotherapy used to wash out the peritoneal/abdominal cavity
Met - metastasis
Lesion - something fishy, usually a tumor
Neoplastic process - potentially cancerous activity
Imaging - generally some type of scan or X-ray
PS - Performance Status - a term used to describe your overall ability to function, dressing yourself, eating, physical activity, etc.

Bevacizumab (Avastin) - a drug used to stop new blood vessels from forming
Anti-angiogenesis - the process of stopping new blood vessels from forming
VEGF - Vascular endothelial growth factor - the part of the cancer cell dealing with new blood vessel formation

Peripheral Neuropathy - a side effect of chemotherapy in which the nerves in your extremities are damaged and you experience numbness and some loss of use of your hands and feet

Anti-emetic - any kind of drug that is used to combat nausea and vomiting

Adjuvant - chemo treatment that follows surgical removal of all the cancer they can find -- it generally refers to treatment done when the patient is presumably cancer free
Neo-adjuvant - chemo that is done prior to surgery both to potentially shrink any known lesions and also to offer some systemic treatment to prevent new lesions from cropping up

Resection - surgically removing a big chunk of something - like your colon or your liver. It offers the best potential for a curative surgery because they can usually take out the cancer, and also some buffer zone tissue which is referred to as the "margin."

Margins - the amount of cancer free tissue surrounding the tumor - they determine this when the resected tissue is sent to the pathology lab
Radial margin - the amount of chest wall that was left cancer free

RFA - Radio Frequency Ablation - this is a localized treatment for tumors where a probe is inserted into the tumor and heated with radio waves to cook the cancer to death. It is often done when the lesions in question cannot be resected for some reason.
Cryoablation - same idea as RFA, but they freeze the tumor instead of cooking it

ADL = activities of daily life (eating, dressing, showering, etc.)
MBC = metastatic breast cancer

MRC-metastatic rectal cancer
TNM = an attempt at universal staging evaluation that attempts to unify across countries analysis tumors and extent of spread of disease. T refers to tumor and can be modified X-4, N refers to node involvement and is modified X-2 and M refers to metastasis to distant organs, modified X, 1 or 0. The number that follows T or N indicates severity; X indicates it can't be assessed yet, and the number that follows M indicates presence (X for not assessed, 1 for present, 0 for not present.). It will be types out as TnNnMn.
T4N2M1 means tumor spread to distant organs, node involvement to 4 or more regional lymph nodes, mets-yes and is equal to a Stage IV diagnosis. More explanation of the TNM system: http://cancerstaging.blogspot.com/2005/ ... ectum.html

Bloodwork:
CBC: Complete blood count, including both hematology and serum chemistry analysis. Hematology can usually be run quickly, and checks things like white counts and red blood cell counts. Serum chem analysis takes longer (the machine runs more slowly.)

TPN = total parenteral nutrition, or nutrient liquid delivered via IV or PICC line.

CR = Complete response to chemotherapy
PR = Partial response to chemotherapy
PD = Progressive disease while on chemotherapy

Refractory - resistant or unresponsive to various chemotherapy treatments

onc = our little term to mean oncologist

 

palliative = treatments necessary to make patient more comfortable or have less pain

 

Hugs, Kathi

Great information.  Thanks

Great information.  Thanks for posting!