The branch of medicine concerned with children and their diseases.

1. A chronic disease of the bones that occurs in elderly people and causes bone deformities. It is not a cancer, but it can sometimes lead to osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. 2. A condition that affects the nipple of the breast. It resembles eczema, and is always associated with cancer of the milk ducts.

The roof of the mouth, consisting of the hard (or bony) palate in the front and the soft (muscular) palate at the back.

When it is agreed that cure is no longer possible, palliative care, which does not try to cure the disease, aims to promote comfort, relieve symptoms, and maximise the quality of life. It seeks to address the full range of physical, emotional and spiritual needs of both patient and family: see hospice care.

The act of feeling with the hand. Doctors frequently use palpation to examine the body.

A thin, lumpy gland about 15 cm long that lies behind the stomach in the upper left part of the abdomen. The pancreas produces enzymes that help to digest food. It also produces insulin, which controls the amount of sugar in the blood. See Diagram 1.

Cancer of the pancreas. It is more common in men and in older people, and is rarely found under the age of 55. There are two types: cancer of the endocrine pancreas, and cancer of the exocrine pancreas. Pancreatic cancer is often difficult to diagnose, as the symptoms (pain in the abdomen, loss of appetite, nausea, jaundice, weight loss) may also be caused by many other conditions.

A simple scan test that can detect changes in the cells of the cervix (opening of the uterus). These changes are not cancer, but may develop into cancer of the cervix if not treated (see precancerous condition). Simple treatment can prevent the cancer from developing. The test involves collecting a few cells from the surface of the cervix and examining them under a microscope. All women should be tested regularly once they become sexually active. Short for Papanicolaou test, after the man who designed it, it is also called Pap smear, smear test, cervical smear.

A benign growth (not a cancer) that may occur on the skin or on a mucous membrane. Papillomas may also occur in the bladder and in the milk ducts of the breast. Warts are a type of papilloma.

The most common type of bladder cancer. It starts on the bladder wall and grows into the bladder, attached by a stem.

see parotid tumour.

One of a pair of glands, located in front of each ear, that release saliva into the mouth.

A tumour in the parotid gland. Many parotid tumours are benign (not a cancer), and are usually painless and slow growing. Parotid cancers, however, tend to grow rapidly. Sometimes a tumour that appears to be benign for many years will suddenly become malignant (a cancer).

see laryngectomy.

The study of the nature, cause and development of disease by examining samples of blood, urine, faeces and body tissues, using x-rays and other techniques, and carrying out autopsies.

Pain relief that patients can control themselves. The patient is attached to an intravenous drip, and when necessary, can press a small device that will deliver a dose of a pain-relief drug through the drip. Delivery is followed by a lockout period before the device will deliver another dose. PCA is often used to control pain after surgery.

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, also simply called gastrostomy. A tube inserted through the skin and abdomen wall, directly into the stomach, so that liquid foods can be fed directly into the stomach.

When the doctor examines the organs of the pelvis by feeling them with fingers inserted into the vagina and/or rectum.

Where stem cells are collected from a person's bloodstream, to be transplanted as a treatment for acute leukaemias, lymphomas and other cancers. PSCH may be used as well as, or instead of, collecting bone marrow for transplantation. The procedure is painless, but it may take several hours. Also called peripheral stem cell harvest (PSCH).

Membrane that lines the wall of the abdomen and covers the organs within it.

A technique that is used to build up clear and detailed pictures of the body. The person is injected with a glucose solution containing a very small amount of radioactive material. The scanner can 'see' the radioactive substance, and this shows where healthy cells are using the glucose in the body. Damaged or cancerous cells show up as areas where the gluscose is being ignored.

The throat; a tube with walls of muscle lined with mucous membrane that extends from the back of the nose to the top of the oesophagus. See Diagram 2.

A straw-coloured liquid that forms the fluid part of blood. The blood cells and platelets are suspended in the plasma. It also contains substances to make the blood clot, to restrict bleeding: see serum.

A process that may be used in the treatment of multiple myeloma and macroglobulinaemia, a related disease. The blood is pumped slowly from the body through a vein in one arm and passed through a machine that spins off the plasma and the abnormal proteins it contains. The remaining blood cells, along with replacement plasma from a donor, is then returned to the body through a vein in the other arm.

A branch of surgery concerned with reconstructing damaged or deformed parts of the body, or rebuilding parts that have been lost: see reconstructive surgery.

Tiny disc-shaped structures in the blood. Their several functions are all to do with the blood's ability to clot and stop bleeding. Also known as thrombocytes.

The removal by surgery of an entire lung.

An abnormal growth projecting from one of the body's mucous membranes. The most common places they are found include the nose, colon, and bladder. Polyps are generally benign, but one type that occurs in the bowel, an adenoma, can become malignant (cancerous) over a period of many years.

Trade name for an intravenous access device.

A growth that is not cancerous (malignant), but which may become a cancer if it is not treated, such as adenomas, which may develop into bowel cancer.

A malignant tumour (a cancer) starts in one site of the body where it is known as the primary tumour. At a later stage, cancer cells may break away from it and be carried to other parts of the body, where they may lodge and increase to form secondary tumours or metastases.

A test that determines whether a cancer relies on the hormone progesterone for its growth. If so, it may respond to hormone therapy: see hormone receptors.

1. The outlook or expected outcome of a disease. 2. The length of time the person is expected to live.

A gland about the size of a walnut found only in men, which produces the bulk of the fluid that makes up semen. In elderly men, the prostate often becomes enlarged, blocking the neck of the bladder and making it difficult to pass urine. See Diagram 4.

Cancer of the prostate gland is the most common cancer in men. It rarely occurs under the age of fifty-five. Symptoms include problems with urinating, and blood in the urine.

Surgical removal of the prostate gland.

Tests for PSA, prostate acid phosphatase (PAP) and serum alkaline phosphatase (SAP) are routinely used to diagnose prostate cancer. The individual tests are not sufficiently reliable, but together they provide a good indication of whether or not cancer is present.

An artificial substitute for a missing part of the body, such as an arm, leg, breast, eye, tooth and so on. A prosthesis may be functional (an artificial leg), or purely cosmetic (a glass eye): see breast implant.

One of a group of organic compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Proteins are made in the body and are an essential part of it. The cells of muscles, tissues, organs, etc, are protein. So are enzymes and hormones.

A formal, detailed treatment plan used for groups of people with similar medical problems. Doctors follow set treatment protocols so that the results of different types of treatment can be compared, and the natural course of a disease may be better understood.

see prostate-specific antigen.

see peripheral stem cell rescue.

Of the lungs.

Tests that measure the amount of air moving in and out of the lungs during breathing, and evaluate the person's ability to get oxygen from the air into the blood. The tests can also indicate whether there is an obstruction in the air passages. Also called lung function tests.

A device that regulates the rate at which a drug is delivered. A pump is frequently attached to an intravenous drip to deliver chemotherapy drugs, or drugs needed after surgery. These pumps are relatively large, and sit beside the patient's bed. Small portable pumps, also known as syringe drivers, may be used in palliative care to deliver pain-relief drugs. The Grasby pump is the most common of these.