Oncologists — doctors who treat cancer — use many terms when they talk about this disease. These terms usually have very specific meanings that are important in cancer research, specifically in clinical trials.Your doctor may also use these terms when talking to you.

If you or a loved one has cancer, you may want to become well versed in the language of cancer. As a start, get to know some of the more common cancer terms listed below. However,if your doctor uses terminology that you don't understand, don't hesitate to ask him or her for a definition or an explanation. Effective communication is essential when talking about your health.

For more information, see Interpreting Cancer Statistics.

肿瘤科医生 - 治疗癌症的医生 - 在谈论这种疾病时会使用许多术语。 这些术语通常具有非常具体的含义，这些含义在癌症研究中很重要，特别是在临床试验中。您的医生也可能在与您交谈时使用这些术语。

如果您或您所爱的人患有癌症，您可能希望精通癌症语言。 首先，了解下面列出的一些更常见的癌症术语。 但是，如果您的医生使用您不理解的术语，请不要犹豫，询问他或她的定义或解释。 在谈论您的健康时，有效的沟通至关重要。

有关更多信息，请参阅解释癌症统计。

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Cure.

When it comes to cancer, the word "cure" is a tricky one.Oncologists are usually hesitant to say that someone is cured of cancer, because  there is always a chance the cancer can come back.Even if all the cancer seems to be gone, there may be some undetected cells still in the  body. These cells can multiply over time and lead to relapse.

If someone is described as cured, it usually means that he or she has been cancer-free for at least five years.

治愈。

谈到癌症，“治愈”这个词是一个棘手的问题。肿瘤科医生通常会犹豫是否有人从癌症中被治愈，因为癌症总是有可能复发。即使所有的癌症似乎都消失了 ，身体中可能还有一些未被发现的细胞。 这些细胞会随着时间的推移而繁殖并导致复发。

如果某人被描述为治愈，通常意味着他或她已经无癌症至少五年。

Progressive disease.

Progressive disease is defined in clinical trials as tumor growth of more than 20 percent since treatment began.Tumor growth means that the tumor is getting bigger, but it may also mean that the tumor is spreading.Progression generally indicates that treatment has stopped working.The bottom line is that your cancer is getting worse.

病情进展。

病情进展在临床试验中被定义为自治疗开始以来肿瘤生长超过20％。肿瘤生长意味着肿瘤变大，但也可能意味着肿瘤正在扩散。进展通常表明治疗已经停止起效。 最重要的是，你的癌症正在恶化。

Recurrence or relapse.

If your doctor tells you that you are experiencing a recurrence, or  relapse, of cancer, this means that cancer you thought had been  successfully treated has now returned. The cancer may have returned in  its original location, or it may be in a new location.Even if you are in remission — that is, your cancer seems to have  disappeared — some cancer cells may still be present, and they can multiply over time. A recurrence, or relapse, may not be detected until  tests identify these cells.

复发。

如果您的医生告诉您，您正在经历癌症的复发，这意味着被认为成功治疗的癌症现已恢复。 癌症可能已经在其原始位置返回，或者出现在新的位置。即使您处于缓解期 - 也就是说，您的癌症似乎已经消失 - 一些癌细胞可能仍然存在，并且它们可以随着时间的推移而倍增。 在识别这些细胞之前，可能无法检测到复发或复发。

Refractory cancer or resistant cancer.

For many reasons, cancer may not respond to treatment. Some cancer  cells have ways of defending themselves against chemotherapy drugs,  biological agents and/or radiation therapy. In such cases, the cancer is termed refractory. Refractory cancer may shrink, but not to the point where the treatment is determined to be effective. In most cases, the tumor stays the same size it was before treatment (stable disease) or it grows (progressive disease).

难治性癌症或耐药性癌症。

由于许多原因，治疗可能对癌症无效。 一些癌细胞具有抵抗化疗药物，生物制剂和/或放射疗法的方法。 在这种情况下，癌症被称为难治性的。 难治性癌症可能会缩小，但不会达到确定治疗有效的程度。 在大多数情况下，肿瘤保持与治疗前相同的大小（疾病稳定）或其生长（病情进展）。

Complete remission or complete response.

After your cancer has been treated, your doctor will do some tests to see if any cancer cells are still present in your body. If your doctor can't find any cancer cells over the course of six months, you are thought to be in remission (a situation also known as a complete remission or a complete response). This does not mean the cancer has disappeared completely. It means only that no cells have been found after testing.

Remission may last for many years or for less than one year.You should continue to follow up with your doctor and get tested regularly to see if any cancer cells remain in your body.

完全缓解。

治疗癌症后，医生会做一些检测，看看您体内是否还有癌细胞。 如果您的医生在六个月内找不到任何癌细胞，您被认为处于缓解期（这种情况也称为完全缓解或完全缓解）。 这并不意味着癌症已完全消失。 这只意味着检测后发现没有细胞。

缓解可能持续多年或不到一年。您应该继续跟进您的医生并定期接受检查，看看是否有任何癌细胞残留在您体内。

Partial remission, or partial response.

A partial remission, or partial response, indicates there has been a decrease in tumor size, or in the extent of cancer in the body,after treatment. The definition of "partial" is different for every cancer. In most cases it means tumors must be reduced by more than 50 percent—and stay that way for at least six months after treatment. But in clinical trials,new guidelines define a partial response as a reduction in tumor size of at least 30 percent.

部分缓解。

部分缓解表明治疗后肿瘤大小或体内癌症程度有所下降。 “部分”的定义对于每种癌症都是不同的。 在大多数情况下，它意味着肿瘤必须减少50％以上 - 并且在治疗后至少保持6个月。 在临床试验中，新指南将部分反应定义为肿瘤大小减少至少30％。

Stable disease.

A tumor may shrink,but not enough to be categorized as a partial response (that is, tumor reduction greater than 50 percent). Or a tumor may increase in size, but not enough to be considered progressive disease (that is, tumor growth greater than 20 percent). Such tumors, in which there is no significant change in size, are classified as stable disease.

疾病稳定。

肿瘤可能缩小，但不足以被归类为部分缓解。 或者肿瘤的大小可能会增加，但不足以被视为疾病进展。 这种肿瘤在大小上没有显着变化，被归类为稳定疾病。（可理解为肿瘤缓慢增长）

Disease-free survival.

Disease-free survival is the length of time after treatment that a person experiences a complete remission (in which cancer is not  detectable in the body). Disease-free survival can also refer to the percentage of people who experience complete remission for a certain time period. For example, if a cancer treatment results in 70 percent disease-free survival over five years, seven out of every 10 people were in complete remission for five years after treatment.

无病生存期。

无病生存期是指治疗后患者完全缓解（在体内无法检测到癌症）的时间长度。 无病生存也可以指在一段时间内完全缓解的人的百分比。 例如，如果癌症治疗五年内无病生存率是70％，那么每10个人中有7个在治疗后五年内完全缓解。

Disease-specific survival.

Disease-specific survival tells you the proportion of people with a type of cancer who did not die of the cancer after a specific time period. These people may still be alive, or they may have died of some other cause. For example, a 60 percent disease-specific survival for a certain type of cancer means that 40 percent of the people with that cancer died of the cancer, and 60 percent either are alive or died of some other cause.

疾病特异性生存期。

疾病特异性生存率告诉您在特定时间段后患有某种癌症并且未死于癌症的人的比例。 这些人可能还活着，或者他们可能已经死于其他原因。 例如，某种类型癌症的60％疾病特异性存活率意味着40％的癌症患者死于癌症，60％的患者存活或死于某些其他原因。

Event-free survival.

This term is usually used only in clinical trials.It refers to the length of time after treatment that a person remains free of certain negative events, which can include the following:

Severe treatment side effects

Cancer recurrence or progression

Death (from treatment side effects or from the cancer itself)

The negative events used to calculate event-free survival can vary. They are usually determined by the type of clinical trial conducted.

无事件生存期。

该术语通常仅用于临床试验。它指的是治疗后一个人没有任何负面事件的时间长度，包括以下内容：

严重的治疗副作用

癌症复发或进展

死亡（来自治疗副作用或来自癌症本身）

用于计算无事件生存的负面事件可能有所不同。 它们通常取决于所进行的临床试验的类型。

Progression-free survival.

This term defines the length of time during and after treatment that  the cancer does not grow. Progression-free survival includes the amount of time patients have experienced a complete response or a partial response, as well as the amount of time patients have experienced stable disease.

无进展生存期。

该术语定义了治疗期间和之后癌症不会生长的时间长度。 无进展生存包括患者经历完全缓解或部分缓解的时间量，以及患者经历疾病稳定的时间量。

Relative survival.

Relative survival reflects the expected amount of time a person with a particular disease will live, compared with people the same age who do not have that disease. Relative survival gives you an idea of how much a particular disease is expected to shorten your life.

Relative survival is often expressed as the percent of people with the disease who survive five years, divided by the percent of the general population who will be alive at the end of those five years. For example, the five-year relative survival for breast cancer is 86 percent. Therefore, the proportion of women with breast cancer who are alive five years after diagnosis is 86 percent of the proportion of the general population who are alive five years later. Put another way, five years after diagnosis, the population of women with breast cancer has 14 percent fewer survivors than the general population does, or the chance of a woman being alive five years after a breast cancer diagnosis is 14  percent lower than it is for all women.

Relative survival is usually calculated for specific stages of cancer. Stages  reflect how large a tumor is, whether or not it can be surgically removed and whether it has spread to lymph nodes, bone or other organs at the time of diagnosis. This is an informative way to present information, because survival is higher when cancer is diagnosed early than when cancer is diagnosed after it has spread (metastasized).

For example, the overall five-year relative survival for people with lung  cancer is 15 percent, but for people with lung cancer that has not  spread outside the 

lung, it is 48 percent. (In contrast, survival for  people diagnosed after their lung cancer has spread outside the lung is only 3 percent.)

Relative survival considers only deaths from the cancer and not other deaths (from accidents, heart disease, secondary cancers or other causes).

相对生存期。

与不患有该疾病的同龄人相比，相对生存率反映了患有特定疾病的人预期的生存时间。 相对生存率可以让您了解特定疾病如何影响人的生命。

Total survival or Overall Survival

Total survival reflects the expected amount of time a person will live before dying of any cause. Total survival reflects the risk of dying from a specific cancer, plus the risk of dying from any other cause (an  accident or another disease, for example). Cancer experts calculate  total survival to determine the additional years of life lost as a consequence of having cancer. This has a major impact on choosing treatment.

For example, a 90 year old man with a small colon cancer is much more likely to die of another cause other than colon cancer. So surgery to remove the colon cancer may not be indicated. But a 55 year old with a cancerous colon polyp has a significant risk of dying from metastatic colon cancer if the polyp is not completely removed.

总生存期。

总生存期反映了一个人在死于任何原因之前的预期生存时间。 癌症患者总生存率反映了死于特定癌症的风险，以及死于任何其他原因（例如事故或其他疾病）的风险。 癌症专家计算总生存期，以确定因患癌症而导致的额外生命损失年数。 这对选择治疗有重大影响。

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