Hi and welcome from a fellow Aussie Dave,
As Christine says there a quite a few of us here. Is your hospital in Brisbane?
I am so sorry to hear that you are going through this for the 2nd time. As you can see by my signature I had much the same as your first operation.
The very best of luck with the upcoming surgery on Monday.
I searched on abbreviations and found a list that Mark a Patient Advocate (1000+ posts) had posted a while ago.
It is a very comprehensive list.
Please post again if you have questions before surgery and after.
Cheers
Gabriele
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.
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
