Dictionary of Cancer Terms
View in Spanish: Compresión
Compression (kum-PREH-shun)
A pressing or squeezing together. In medicine, it can describe a structure, such as a tumor, that presses on another part of the body, such as a nerve. It can also describe the flattening of soft tissue, such as the breast, that occurs during a mammogram (x-ray of the breast).
Source: National Cancer Institute Dictionary of Cancer Terms, available at www.cancer.gov/dictionary.