Glossary of Medical Terms

A physical exam of the breast performed by a health care provider to check for lumps or other changes. Also called CBE.

The process of identifying a disease, condition, or injury based on the signs and symptoms a patient is having and the patient’s health history and physical exam. Further testing, such as blood tests, imaging tests, and biopsies, may be done after a clinical diagnosis is made.

Changes to a 1988 U.S. law that sets the standards for all laboratory testing that is done on human tissue, blood, and other body fluid samples used to screen, diagnose, prevent, or treat a disease or condition. The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments program makes sure laboratories follow these standards and have quality control programs in place so that patient test results are accurate and reliable. The federal government agencies that manage the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments program are the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Certain types of laboratory testing, such as testing done in clinical trials, research studies, crime labs, and work-related drug testing, are not covered by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments program. Also called CLIA.

Guidelines developed to help health care professionals and patients make decisions about screening, prevention, or treatment of a specific health condition.

Research in which people, or data or samples of tissue from people, are studied to understand health and disease. Clinical research helps find new and better ways to detect, diagnose, treat, and prevent disease. Types of clinical research include clinical trials, which test new treatments for a disease, and natural history studies, which collect health information to understand how a disease develops and progresses over time.

A health professional who works directly with patients, or uses data from patients, to do research on health and disease and to develop new treatments. Clinical researchers may also do research on how health care practices affect health and disease.

The failure of a cancer to shrink after treatment.

A case series in which the patients receive treatment in a clinic or other medical facility.

The stage of cancer (amount or spread of cancer in the body) that is based on tests that are done before surgery. These include physical exams, imaging tests, laboratory tests (such as blood tests), and biopsies.

A method used to find out the stage of cancer (amount or spread of cancer in the body) using tests that are done before surgery. These include physical exams, imaging tests, laboratory tests (such as blood tests), and biopsies.