Terminololgy you might hear:

Alopecia (al-oh-PEE-she-ah)
Hair loss.

Antiemetic
A medicine to prevent or relieve nausea or vomiting.

Benign tumor
A growth that is not a cancer and does not spread to other parts of the body.

Biopsy
The removal of a sample of tissue to see whether cancer cells are present.

Cancer
A general term for more than 100 diseases that have uncontrolled, abnormal growth of cells that can invade and destroy healthy tissue.

Chemotherapy
A treatment for cancer using drugs.

Conformal Therapy
Shaping the radiation beam specifically to the area of interest (using 3-D treatment planning). Treating as little normal tissue as possible which causes fewer side effects.

Dosimetrist (Doe-sim-ah-trist)
A person who plans and calculates the proper amount of radiation dose for each treatment.

External radiation
Radiation therapy that uses a machine located outside of the body to aim high-energy rays at cancer cells.

Fluoride
A chemical applied to the teeth to prevent tooth decay.

Linear Accelerator
A machine that creates high-energy radiation to treat cancers.

Malignant
Cancerous (see cancer)

Metastasis
The spread of a cancer from one part of the body to another. Cells in the second tumor are like those in the original tumor.

Oncologist
A doctor who is a specialist in the treatment of cancer.

Palliative therapy
A treatment that may relieve symptoms without curing the disease.

Radiation Oncologist
A doctor who specialized in using radiation to treat disease

Radiation Physicist
A person trained to ensure that the radiation machine delivers the right amount of radiation to the treatment sites.

Radiation Therapist
A person with special training who runs the equipment that delivers the radiation.

Radiation Therapy
The use of high-energy penetrating rays.

Radiotherapy
See radiation therapy.

Simulator
A process using special Xrau pictures to plan radiation treatment so that the area to be treated is precisely located and marked for treatment.

Treatment Port
The place on the body at which the radiation beam is aimed, also called treatment area or treatment site.

Tumor
An abnormal mass of tissue. Tumors are either benign or malignant.

X-ray
High-energy radiation that can be used at low levels to diagnosis diseases or at high levels to treat cancer.

3-D Treatment Planning
The latest technology using images from CT scans to specificately locate anatomy and determine treatment sites.