Category: C

The occurrence of many cancers in a small geographical area (or a defined population) in much greater numbers than would be expected through chance alone.  

A protein or carbohydrate that is expressed either by cancerous cells or by cancerous cells in much greater concentrations than healthy cells. Cancer antigens are used in clinical medicine to screen body fluids for tumors or to follow the response of tumors to treatment. Since they stimulate the immune response, they are also used in…

Disseminated cancer in which the original tissue type is uncertain. Cancer of unknown primary site generally has a poor prognosis.  

A malignancy of the colon or rectum. At some time during their lives 6% of Americans will be diagnosed with the disease. In 2008 the American Cancer Society estimated that 154,000 Americans would be newly diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and that it would cause 50,500 deaths. (It is the second leading cause of cancer deaths…

Cancer of the skin of the scrotum due to chronic irritation by coal soot.  

An osseous plate composing cancellous bone; any structure arranged as a lattice.  

An autosomal recessive disorder of infants, marked by spongy white matter with Alzheimer’s type II cells. Also called Canavan-van Bogaert-Bertrand disease.  

Surgery to reopen a narrow, closed, or clogged external auditory canal. It is used, for example, in patients with external otitis that has not responded to medical therapy.  

Use of the Hallpike maneuver to reposition a canalith in the semicircular canal(s) to relieve benign positional vertigo.  

A canal in the fetal sphenoid bone that contains the stalk of Rathke’s pouch.