Welcome to the NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms, a resource with more than 6,000 terms related to cancer and medicine.

Tips on Looking Up a Word or Phrase

• In the search box, type the word or phrase you are looking for and click the "Go" button.


• Click the radio button in front of the word "Contains" when you want to find all terms in the dictionary that include a word or set of letters. For example, if you type "lung" and select "Contains," the search will find terms such as "small cell lung cancer" as well as "lung cancer."


• You can also click on a letter of the alphabet to browse through the dictionary.


• The search box has an autosuggest feature. When you type three or more letters, a list of up to 10 suggestions will pop up below the box. Click on a suggestion with your mouse or use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move through the suggestions and then hit the Enter key to choose one.


• Using the Escape key or clicking "close" within the autosuggest box closes the box and turns off the feature until you start a new search.


• After you find your word or phrase, use the tabs under the search box to toggle between definitions in English and Spanish.