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Glite Dictionary
🐢 Slowing cell growth 💊 A cancer medicine
cytostatic

cytostatic

8.9
Stopping or slowing the growth and division of cells
  • adjective
  • /ˌsaɪtəˈstætɪk/
  • Specialized
translation icon : citostático
  • In cancer therapy, cytostatic agents are essential for inhibiting cell division in malignant tumors.

Examples

  • The cytostatic cancer treatment drugs used in treating neoplastic diseases often attack the phylogenetically oldest brain tissue, the primary carrier of our instinctive substratum and basic feelings.

    Blog text (2)

  • Many cytostatic treatments aim to slow down cancer cell proliferation.

  • In contrast to plants, in animal eggs/oocytes, it has been reported that cell cycle arrest before fertilization is mediated via cytostatic factor, CSF (Masui and Markert 1971).

    Academic text (2018)

  • The doctor prescribed a cytostatic drug to help control the growth of the tumor.

How Harmful

cytotoxic
  • Specialized
1 8.1
cytostatic
  • Specialized
8.9
nontoxic
5 3.4

Surface Forms

cytostatic positive

Morphology

cytostatic = static (semi-transparent) = cyto + static

Formed by the combining form 'cyto-' (not a standalone English word) + 'static'; the medical combining form is specialized and may not be known to average learners, so the meaning is only partly transparent.

Etymology

Cytostatic comes from the parts cyto- meaning 'cell' and -static meaning 'to stop or stand still', like static which means 'not moving'. So when something is cytostatic, it 'stops' or slows cell growth and division.