Glossary

- Patient Research Advocates
- Glossary

ALL - A B C D E G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U W

Watchful waiting

Closely watching a patient’s condition but not giving treatment unless symptoms appear or change. Watchful waiting is sometimes used in conditions that progress slowly. It is also used when the risks of treatment are greater than the possible benefits. [NCI]

This is a glossary of selected terms relevant to cancer research. It is designed to help you understand terminology that you may encounter when attending cancer research conferences or reviewing scientific papers.

Several excellent cancer and research-related glossaries are available online and some of these terms and definitions are used in this glossary. To access the full resources, see:

Canadian Cancer Society Cancer Glossary
CIHR Jargon Buster
BioCanRx – The Immune System and Immunotherapy Glossary. Reprinted with permission from Patient Resource LLC and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). Copyright Patient Resource LLC.
American Cancer Society Cancer Glossary
The NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms, a very comprehensive source with over 8,000 terms related to cancer and medicine
The Multilingual Cancer Glossary, a project of the Cancer Australia Supporting people with cancer Grant initiative that provides terms in multiple languages
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), an excellent source of understandable information on genomics that also has a “Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms”

Please note that in our glossary the source for the definition is provided in square brackets after the definition. If other sources are used, these are noted.

We thank Dr. Louisa Salemi, Dr. Barbara Vanderhyden and Alyssa Vito (PhD candidate) for reviewing this glossary.

If there are terms that you would like to see included in the glossary, please forward your ideas to info@ccra-acrc.ca.

Watchful waiting