Abbreviations and definitions for common terms.

We all use abbreviations here and new-comers sometimes have a hard time understanding them.
SCC - Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Dx - Diagnosis
Rx - Prescription
Tx - Therapy? Treatment?
BOT - Base of tongue
PEG - Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy aka feeding tube

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/dental/tube_feeding.htm

HPV - Human papillomavirus
rad - radiation
ENT - Ear, nose, throat Doctor aka Otolaryngologist
Glossectomy - Removal of tongue
Metastasis - Spreading of the cancer
XRT - Conventional external beam radiation therapy aka EBT
IMRT - Intensity modulated radiation therapy

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts/imrt_radiation.htm

PET - Positron emission tomography scan
CT/CAT - Co-axial tomography scan
EBT - External beam radiation therapy aka XRT
OCF - Oral Cancer Foundation
NCI - National Cancer Institute, a sub division of the National Institutes of Health
CCC - Comprehensive cancer center or clinic; A tumor board at a cancer center will include doctors trained in different disciplines. Having your case presented and evaluated by this type of multidisciplinary team will give you the best options for treatment, considering all possibilities from their different areas of expertise.

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/resources/cancer_centers.htm

HBO - Hyper-baric oxygen Patient given oxygen under pressure prior to dental surgery.
Stage - Development of the cancer

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts/stages_cancer.htm

TNM - System for describing the cancer

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts/stages_cancer.htm

NCCN - National Comprehensive Cancer Network (an alliance of 20 leading comprehensive cancer centers).

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/treatment/pdf/head-and-neck.pdf

Margins - Refers to the margins of biopsied tissue; clean margins indicate that all the visible cancerous cells were removed.
Biopsy - Removal of sample or whole of suspect tissue

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts/detailed_biopsy.htm

Xerostomia - Dry mouth resulting from reduced or absent saliva flow
RO - Radiological oncologist
MO - Medical oncologist
DO - Dental oncologist

Thanks Mark - nice job!

Thanks for the glossary post...very helpful. I have a question about terminology for either Gary or Mark.
What is the unit of measurement called for our rads. The RO said I had 7000 ???'s, which was a max life time dose,beyond which irreparable tissue damage begins. I wish I had asked more at the time but I think it was not IMRT because the cancer was poorly differentiated and the saliva glands are now fried.
I'll watch for your post, Thanks, Fran B.

Hello Fran, The basic unit of radiation absorbed dose is the amount of energy (joules)absorbed per unit mass (kg). This unit, known as the Gray (Gy), has replaced the unit of rad used in the past (100 rads = 1 Gy; 1 rad = 1 cGy).

The amount of radiation absorbed by the tissues is called the radiation dose (or dosage). Before 1985, dose was measured in a unit called a "rad" (radiation absorbed dose). Now the unit is called a gray (abbreviated as Gy). One Gy is equal to 100 rads; one centigray (abbreviated as cGy) is the same as 1 rad.

70Gy or 7000 RAD (7000 cGy)is generally considered to be the "lifetime" dose for head and neck. This may not be exactly true because of advances with IMRT, where retreatment may still be possible.

I think I got that right, Gary might add more or correct me.

Thanks Mark for the very good explanation. Much appreciated.
Fran B.

Abbreviations and definitions for common terms.

We all use abbreviations here and new-comers sometimes have a hard time understanding them. I

A valient effort, and a posting that should be put in the frequently asked questions. I had to laugh, being an ex-military person at FUBAR, with the substitution of the first word from the more common F word, and the omision of SNAFU which almost always accompanied FUBAR in military jargon... Situation normal, all F*#$%d up.

NIATC: Now I am totally confused.

SNAFU is there and many of us know how to properly pronounce it.

NIATC???....OIC!

I stand corrected. (ISC) I should have RTFM/list better. We should start our own acronyms, as you can see (AUCS) from my addition here. I vote for GTBOTSOTG (Glad to be on this side of the grass) as the first new bastardization of the King's English that we should add here at OCF. After all, they put the word bling in the dictionary this year, what is becoming of our language!!!

A couple new ones in the last few days:

may never reach market (MNRM) vaccine

UBIF (Useless but interesting fact)

SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intellegence){because we clearly do not have enough here on Earth}

From Danny- NBSD a degree earned by some doctors from the School of No Bull Shi_

TMWIWTH (tell me what I want to hear)

Thanks for making this 65 yr. old computer neophyte's day easier[harder?]. Perhaps you could publish this and make $ for OCF. Still scratching my head. Amy

Amy...SSMH? I like that one..... it describes a normal day for me as I try to decipher people's behaviors, doctors comments, and the weird guy that sits on the bus bench each day near my house who writes in the air with his fingers while waiting for buses he never gets on. (Could I be seeing a future me in him?)

WTF???

Now we get free web training for oral cancer survivors?

...and what about TPIWWOP?

(This Post Is Worthless WithOut Pictures)

Don't forget the ever-faithful WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get)

Andrea

The actual list of abbreviations that Mark put together have disappeared from post number one here. Mark do you have the list to put back up?

Brian, I have searched 3 out of 4 computers that this might have been on with no luck. The 4th computer has been reduced to only a hard drive which is failing (that is why the computer is no more). I was going to attempt a mass copy of that hard drive to salvage everything on it. I am concerned that it will fail completely and permanently during this copy so I may only get one chance. I haven't found the time to set the copy up.

There is an extensive glossary with abbreviations at the end of the "getting through it" project. Perhaps those PDF pages can be linked seperately here on the forum? I tried to copy and paste them into a post but the pages lost their formatting.