Glossary

Advocacy: Exerting influence (i.e. pleading or arguing) on behalf of an organization, group or cause in order to convince influential others to take a particular course of action.

Assessment: As one of the core functions of public health, assessment involves the systematic collection and analysis of data in order to provide a basis for decision making.This may include collecting statistics on local health status, health needs, and/or other public health issues.

Cancer: The general term for more than 200 diseases in which abnormal cells grow without control.

Cancer Control: The reduction of cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality through an orderly sequence of activities from research on interventions and their impact in defined populations to the broad, systematic application of theresearch results to prevent and treat cancer.

Cancer Experience Continuum: Six major phases in the experience of dealing with cancer – prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and palliation.

Cancer Sites: locations within the body where specific types of cancer are known to occur. Examples are the breast, colon, rectum, skin, prostate, and so on.

CCAN: Canadian Cancer Action Network

Chemotherapy: The use of drugs to treat cancer.

Clinical Trial: A research study that tests a new treatment or approach to detecting, reducing the risk for and managing cancer, which may prove to be better than current methods. Strict rules are followed to make sure participants are well informed about the purpose, risks and benefits of any study before they agree to join a clinical trial.

Cost–effectiveness: Compares relative costs and outcomes of different interventions.

CPAC: Canadian Partnership Against Cancer

Diagnosis: Identification of a disease from signs, symptoms, laboratory results, radiological results, and physical examination findings.

Epidemiology: The study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations and the application of this study to control of health problems.

Evidence–based Medicine (EBM): applies the best available evidence gained from the scientific method to medical decision making. EBM seeks to clarify those parts of medical practice that are in principle subject to scientific methods and to apply these methods to ensure the best prediction of outcomes in medical treatment.

Health economics: The application of economic theory to phenomena and problems associated with health.

Health Technology Assessment (HTA): a methodology that supports decision making regarding the adoption of new health technologies such as drugs or medical devices by bringing together many inputs such as scientific and economic analyses, as well as the needs and perspectives of patient and community groups.

Incidence rate: The number of new cases of a disease diagnosed in a given population in a given period of time, expressed as a rate. Cancer incidence ratesare typically reported per 100,000 people per year.

Medicare: Canada’s national health insurance program, which is designed to ensure that all residents have reasonable access to medically necessary hospital and physician services, on a prepaid basis.

Open clinical trial: A research study that is currently accepting or recruiting new participants.

Palliative care: Care for people who are living with a serious illness (such as cancer), as well as for their families. Palliative care provides physical, emotional, social and spiritual support and counselling for people with cancer and for their families. The focus of care is on relieving symptoms, as well as improving quality of life at any time after diagnosis. Prevention: Actions taken to reduce the chance of developing cancer.

PVN: Patient Voice Network. The network of Patient Voice Representatives across Canada.

PVR: Patient Voice Representative. An individual, usually a cancer survivor him orherself, who represents other patients on boards, advisory committees, and in avariety of other settings.

Quality of Life: In a healthcare context, quality of life is the degree to which a person suffering from a particular illness is able to enjoy the important possibilities of his or her life as the result of a particular treatment.

Radiation therapy: The use of high–energy rays or particles to damage or destroy cancer cells. This includes energy from x-rays, gamma rays, electrons and other sources.

Screening: Checking or testing for disease in a group of people who don’t show any symptoms of the disease. Screening programs are directed to entire populations or to large and easily identifiable groups within the population.

Stage: A description of the extent of a cancer within the body. Staging is based on the size of the tumour, the amount of spread to local tissues, involvement of the lymph nodes, and whether or not the disease has spread to other parts of the body. Each cancer type is staged according to its own criteria.

Systematic Review: A literature review focused on a research question that tries to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to that question. Systematic reviews of high-quality randomized controlled trials are crucial to evidence-based medicine.

Terminal: Advanced, progressively worsening condition that cannot be cured andeventually results in death.

Therapy: The treatment of disease.

Treatment: interventions to cure disease, prolong life, and improve the quality of remaining life after a diagnosis of cancer has been confirmed.

Treatment Outcome: Evaluation undertaken to assess the results or consequences of management and procedures used in combating disease in order to determine the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, practicability, etc., of these interventions in individual cases or series.

Tumour: An abnormal growth of cells. Tumours can be non-cancerous (benign) orcancerous (malignant).