Report term decoder
A cancer report can be full of unfamiliar words. Paste the wording from your pathology, lab, or imaging report — or look up a single term — and we’ll explain what each phrase means in plain language. We cover 151 terms across biopsy findings, blood counts, tumor markers, scan language, and stage and grade.
Please read: This tool explains general report language and cannot interpret your personal report, diagnose a condition, judge how serious a result is, or recommend treatment. Only your care team can do that.
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We highlight the terms we recognize and explain each one in plain language. We do not store what you paste.
Turn what you read into questions
These explanations describe report language in general. The best next step is to bring your questions to the team who can interpret your actual report.
Every report term, explained
Prefer a page you can open, read, and share? Each of our 151 terms has its own plain-language explainer that answers “what does this mean on a report?”
Biopsy & pathology
- Adenoma / polyp
- Atypia
- Barrett esophagus
- Benign
- Biopsy
- Carcinoma
- Circumferential resection margin (CRM)
- Clear cell
- Clinical history
- Close margin
- Cytology
- Differentiation
- Ductal carcinoma
- Dysplasia
- Frozen section
- Gross description
- Hyperplasia
- Immunohistochemistry
- In situ
- Invasive
- Keratinizing
- Ki-67
- Lobular carcinoma
- Lymphovascular invasion
- Malignant
- Margin
- Metaplasia
- Microcalcifications
- Microinvasion
- Mitotic rate
- Moderately differentiated
- Mucinous
- Necrosis
- Negative margin
- Papillary
- Pathology report
- Perineural invasion
- Poorly differentiated
- Positive margin
- Residual tumor
- Sarcoma
- Sentinel lymph node
- Signet ring cells
- Specimen
- Tumor budding
- Tumor size
- Well differentiated
Receptors & markers
Blood counts
- Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)
- Albumin
- Anemia
- Blasts
- Calcium
- Complete blood count (CBC)
- Creatinine
- CRP / ESR
- Differential
- Electrolytes
- Ferritin / iron studies
- Hematocrit (Hct)
- Hemoglobin (Hgb)
- INR / PT / PTT
- Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)
- Liver enzymes (AST/ALT)
- Metabolic panel (CMP/BMP)
- Neutropenia
- Platelets (PLT)
- Red blood cells (RBC)
- Reference range
- Thrombocytopenia
- Uric acid
- White blood cells (WBC)
Tumor markers
Scan & imaging
- Artifact
- BI-RADS
- Clinical correlation recommended
- Cystic / solid
- Effusion
- Enhancement
- Ground-glass opacity
- Hypodense / hyperdense
- Hypoechoic / hyperechoic
- Incidental finding
- Indeterminate
- Interval change
- Lesion
- Lung-RADS
- Lymphadenopathy
- Mass
- Metastasis
- Nodule
- Opacity
- PI-RADS
- RECIST
- Restricted diffusion
- Sclerotic / lytic lesion
- Spiculated
- Suspicious
- SUV (PET scan)
- TI-RADS
- Unremarkable
- Well-circumscribed
Stage & grade
Looking for a single everyday word? Try the glossary. Getting ready for a visit? See Prepare for your appointment.
How this page was created
Cancer Explained uses AI to organize and translate information from the authoritative sources cited on each page. Automated checks review claims, citations, clarity, duplication, and potential safety concerns before publication. Our content is not currently reviewed by physicians unless a specific qualified reviewer is named on the page. Cancer Explained provides general education and should not replace advice from your healthcare team.
Editorial status: Source verified — This page was created with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed on it. Source checking is not a medical review.
Human medical review: not completed. At this time, most Cancer Explained content has not been reviewed by a physician or other healthcare professional. Pages with documented human medical review identify the reviewer, credentials, and review date directly.
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