Cancer and Leukaemia words and names

We have put together as many words and names to do with cancer and its treatment, as we can think of, and tried to explain them in everyday language.

You can even find words like 'brain', 'wee', 'doctor', 'nurse', 'blood' and 'heart', so hopefully you will be able to use these to understand more, talk about and explain meanings to anyone, even a very young child.

It should help you to understand what’s going on, and who the various specialists and workers are, and what jobs they do, in and around the hospital.

We hope you find what you are looking for here. If not, please contact us, giving details of the word or name you need to know about. If we don't know the answer immediately, we will get in touch with 'the experts' and let you know. We will then add it to this section of our website.

When someone is diagnosed with cancer and needs to start treatment, the person, their family and friends will be bombarded with a host of medical terms. This can often lead to them feeling baffled and overwhelmed, maybe even frightened.

Medical and nursing staff are very aware that these are distressing and confusing times for those concerned. They therefore deal with people sensitively, doing all they can to ensure people understand what is involved. However, it is inevitable that sometimes things will be missed, misheard or muddled.

Please bear in mind that, we have not compiled this list of cancer terms and titles as medical experts, so we are not claiming this is 100% authoritative, accurate and up-to-date but we do believe it will be giving you a start, in beginning to make sense of what is a very complex subject. We also believe that it should give people sufficient understanding, information and knowledge to go back and discuss things with the specialist nurses and doctors, who will be treating the child or young person. In the end, they are the people best qualified to answer the questions and concerns people may have.

We have also given you some links to other sites, where you may be able to get more in-depth help on various subjects. If after trying these or other sites, you still require more in-depth explanations or information, please do contact us, to send through any requests for help. We will then see what additional sources of help may be available and let you know.

Or if you know about something, which isn't in this section, please let us know and we will be pleased to add it to this section. Please contact us, giving details of what we need to add!