Presentation

The project Multilingual Breast Cancer Vocabulary for Patients is one of the results of the collaboration between the Institute for Applied Linguistics (IULA-CER) of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the Institut Català d'Oncologia (ICO), affiliated to the Generalitat de Catalunya. This vocabulaty has Catalan as its main language and includes definitions and equivalents in English and Spanish.

One of the most significant peculiarities of this dictionary is that, as its name indicates, it is intended for breast cancer patients (and also for patients' relatives and caregivers). The fact that the target audience is not experts has been taken into account both in the selection of the entries and in the wording of the definitions.

It has been shown that there are many benefits to patients in having reliable and understandable information about their own disease. Having this vocabulary will allow them to better understand the information conveyed by the terminological units used in medical texts, to improve communication with health professionals and to be able to share with them the decision-making process during the disease.