Commonly Used Terms

A

Ablation: A medical procedure to remove or destroy unhealthy tissue using heat, cold, or laser energy.

Adrenal glands: Small glands on top of the kidneys that make hormones to help with certain body functions, such as metabolism, blood pressure, and the body’s response to stress.

Advance care planning: Planning for the type of care a person wants if they have a serious illness and cannot make their own health decisions.

Advance directives: Legal papers that state a person’s wishes for their treatment and care. These ensure a person has power over their treatment and care decisions. This often states who is the legal decision maker. 

Alkaline phosphatase (ALP): A special protein (called an enzyme) carried in the blood that helps to break down other proteins.

Anemia: When there are too few red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body.

Anti-seizure drugs: Medicines used to treat epilepsy and other causes of seizures.

B

Benign tumors: Tumors that are not cancer and do not spread. Sometimes benign tumors can grow and cause problems so doctors may still need to treat or watch them closely.

Biopsy: A procedure where a doctor removes a small sample of tissue or cells with a needle to view under a microscope.

Bone marrow: A soft tissue found in the center of bones where red and white blood cells and platelets are made.

Bosniak classification system: A way doctors decide if a kidney cyst is cancer and needs to be removed, or if it can be left alone and watched.

C

Calcium: A mineral that helps build and maintain strong bones and carry out many important functions for the heart, muscles, and nerves.

Carcinoma: A type of cancer that starts in the cells of the skin or the tissue lining our organs, such as the kidneys.

Chemotherapy: A cancer treatment that uses drugs to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or stopping them from dividing.

Clinical trial: Research studies that test new treatments or interventions in people to find out if they are safe and work well.

Comfort care: Medical care that focuses on managing symptoms, controlling pain, and improving a person’s quality of life. It can be used any time during the cancer journey, such as during treatment. It is also often a part of hospice care.

Contrast material: A substance given to patients so radiologists can see their organs and tissues better during imaging.

Cyst (in the kidney): A fluid-filled sac in the kidney that usually doesn’t need to be treated.

D

DNA: Instructions for how our cells work. DNA is a shorter name for the molecule that carries these instructions, deoxyribonucleic acid.

Durable financial power of attorney: A document that names a person to manage finances (money) and property. This person can pay bills, make bank deposits, and collect insurance benefits for a person who cannot do this themselves.

Durable medical power of attorney: A document that names a person to make health decisions if a patient can no longer make decisions. This person, chosen by the patient, is called a “healthcare proxy.” 

E

Electrolytes: Minerals that help your body work properly. Sodium and potassium are 2 important minerals that work as electrolytes in the body.

Embolization: A medical procedure that blocks or closes a specific blood vessel by placing a substance in the blood vessel.

End of life care: When the care team of a person with advanced cancer determines that the cancer can no longer be controlled. At this point, cancer treatments often stop, but the care continues to make sure they are comfortable for their last weeks or months.

G

Genes: A piece of DNA that gets passed down from parent to child that determines a person’s characteristics (such as eye and hair color or height).

Genetic: Information in our cells that is passed down from our parents and determines our characteristics. 

Genetic counseling: Speaking with a specially trained health provider about the results of a genetic test or the chances of a genetic disease.

Genetic testing: A test that looks for certain mutations (changes) in a person’s genes.

Grade: A system that tells doctors how quickly a tumor is likely to grow. Kidney cancers are given a grade from 1 – 4.

H

Hereditary: When a condition or characteristic (such as a higher cancer risk) is passed down from parents through their genes.

Heroic measures: Treatments that are used to save a person’s life when other ways have failed, for example CPR to keep someone breathing. They may have serious or fatal side effects.

Histology: The study of the tiny structures of cells, tissues, and organs as seen through a microscope.

Hospice care: A type of care that focuses on improving quality of life, not on treatment or cure, for people usually with 6 months to live or less. Hospice care also supports caregivers.

I

Immune system: A system of the body that includes cells, tissues, and organs that help the body fight infection or illness.

Immunotherapy: A cancer treatment that boosts a person’s own immune system (the body’s natural defense against disease) to find and destroy cancer cells.

Integrative medicine: A treatment approach that combines standard cancer treatments, such as medicines, with complementary treatments, such as acupuncture or massage.

L

Laparoscopy: A procedure to check the organs in the body. A doctor puts a thin lighted tube with a video camera into a tiny cut in the skin.

Living will: A document that shows what kind of treatments a person wants if they can’t speak for themselves.

Lymph system (or lymphatic system): A part of the immune system that helps protect the body from infection, including the lymph nodes.

Lymph nodes: Tiny bean-shaped organs that are part of the immune system and help our body fight infection. They are a part of the lymph system.

M

Metastasis: Cancer that has spread to different parts of the body from where it started.

Metastatic: Any cancer that spreads to different parts of the body from where it started.

N

Nephrectomy: Surgery to remove some or all of the kidney, along with surrounding tissue.  

Nitrates: A preservative in foods. Too many nitrates can be harmful to health.

Non-hereditary: When a condition or characteristic (such as a risk for cancer) is not passed down from parents through their genes.

P

Partial nephrectomy: Surgery to remove only the cancerous tumor, and possibly some diseased tissue, from a kidney.

Pathologist: A doctor who diagnoses and classifies diseases by looking at tissue samples under a microscope.

Platelets: Tiny blood cells that help the body stop bleeding by clotting up the blood.

Potassium: A mineral that’s important for the muscles and nerves to work well.

R

Radical nephrectomy: Surgery to remove an entire kidney and sometimes the lymph nodes and adrenal gland.

Radiation: A cancer treatment that uses powerful energy beams or particles (like X-rays) to target and destroy cancer cells.

Red blood cells: Cells in the blood that carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.

Renal vein: A blood vessel that carries blood away from the kidney and back to the heart.

Risk factors: Things that can raise the chance of getting a disease.

S

Sodium: A mineral that helps control the balance of fluids in the body and is important for nerves to work well.

Stage: A way to describe the location and size of cancer. For example, an early-stage cancer is only in the kidney, while a later stage cancer has spread to other areas of the body.

Steroid drugs: Medicines that lower swelling (inflammation), allergies, and many other illnesses.

Survivorship: Living with, through, and after cancer. Cancer survivorship begins at diagnosis and continues during treatment and until the end of life.

Systemic therapies: Medicines that spread through the entire body to kill cancer cells.

T

T-cells: White blood cells that make sure our immune system only attacks bacteria and viruses, and not the body itself.

Targeted therapy: A cancer treatment that targets specific molecules (such as proteins) that control how cancer cells grow, divide, and spread.

Targeted therapy drugs: Drugs that are aimed at specific proteins or antigens to slow down or destroy cancer cells.

Tumor: A solid mass caused by abnormal growth of tissue. They can be cancer or non-cancer.

U

Urinary system: includes the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra.

V

Vena cava: The large blood vessel that carries blood without oxygen back to the heart.

W

White blood cells: Cells in the blood that help the immune system fight infections and disease.

Whole-brain radiation: A cancer treatment that gives radiation to the entire brain, even healthy tissue.