Glossary Terms

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Sarcoma: Refers to a type of cancer that forms in the muscles or connective tissue such as bone, fat and cartilage
Scope: A medical scope allows the doctor or nurse to see body tissues inside the body. It is usually used to help diagnose a disease.
Secondaries: New tumours which are formed because cancer cells from the original tumour have broken off and moved to other parts of the body.
Secondary Growths: New tumours that have formed because cancer cells from the original tumour have been carried to other sites in the body via the blood or lymphatic system.
Sentinel node biopsy: The first node in a group of lymph nodes in a certain area of the body is removed and examined by a pathologist for cancer cells.
Sexual dysfunction: Decrease or loss of sexual desire or sexual response.
Sexual function: Ability to respond sexually and to feel sexual desire.
Social workers: Social service professionals who can help you get practical, emotional, and financial help.
Speech and language therapists: Allied health professionals who can help people with chewing and swallowing problems, as well as speech problems.
Sperm banking: The process by which human sperm is reserved and frozen for future use.
Staging: Assessment of a cancer to help plan treatment. The staging is based on four aspects: the size of the tumour; histological grade; whether it has spread to the lymph nodes; and whether it has spread to any other parts of the body.
Standardised: Brought into conformity so that a task is always done the same way.
Stem cells: Cells that have not yet developed into a particular function cell. They have the potential to become any type of cell.
Stent: A metal or plastic tube that is inserted into a passage (like a blood vessel) to keep it open.
Stereotactic radiotherapy: A type of radiation therapy in which a number of closely aimed beams of radiation coming from different directions meet at a specific point, delivering the radiation treatment to that spot.
Stoma: An artificial opening between an organ and the skin surface, formed by surgery. There are different types including a tracheostomy (formed from the windpipe), ileostomy (formed from the small bowel), colostomy (formed from the large bowel), and urostomy (formed from the bladder).
Stop Codon: A DNA code that stops protein production.
Supportive care: An ‘umbrella’ term for all services, both generalist and specialist, that may be needed to support people with life-threatening illness. It is based on an assumption that people have needs for supportive care from the time that the possibility of a life-threatening condition is raised.
Symptoms: A symptom is a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a person which may indicate the presence of disease or heatlh abnormality. These are a person’s physical complaints that need to be assessed in order to exclude an underlying medical condition.
Systemic therapy: Treatment that uses substances that travel through the bloodstream, reaching and affecting cells all over the body. The two main types of systemic therapy are chemotherapy (which uses drugs) and hormone therapy (which uses hormones).