adjuvant

ad·ju·vant | \ ˈa-jə-vənt

Definition of adjuvant

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : serving to aid or contribute : auxiliary

2 : enhancing the effectiveness of medical treatment Retinoids also seem to be useful as adjuvant therapy in the treatment of psoriasis, and they may induce regression of premalignant lesions, including actinic keratoses.— Robert S. Stern specifically : of, relating to, or being treatment administered following primary cancer treatment to enhance the outcome of primary treatment adjuvant chemotherapy following surgery … women who choose this extensive surgery live no longer than women who choose lumpectomy (with or without adjuvant radiation) and frequent check-ups — Susan S. Weed — compare neoadjuvant

adjuvant

noun

Definition of adjuvant (Entry 2 of 2)

: one that helps or facilitates: such as

a : an ingredient (as in a prescription or a solution) that modifies the action of the principal ingredient

b : something (such as a drug or method) that enhances the effectiveness of medical treatment used chemotherapy as an adjuvant to surgery

c : a substance (such as one added to a vaccine) enhancing the immune response to an antigen

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Did You Know?

Adjective

Things that are adjuvant rarely get top billing—they're the supporting players, not the stars. But that doesn't mean they're not important. An adjuvant medicine, for example, can have a powerful healing effect when teamed up with another medicine or curative treatment. Adjuvant descends from the Latin verb adjuvare ("to aid"), which also gave English the nouns coadjutor ("assistant") and aid. These days, adjuvant tends to turn up most often in medical contexts, but it can also be used in the general sense of "serving to aid." Likewise, the noun adjuvant can mean "a drug or method that enhances the effectiveness of medical treatment" or simply "one that helps or facilitates."

Examples of adjuvant in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective These findings led a National Institutes of Health consensus panel to recommend adjuvant chemotherapy for most patients, a practice that has contributed to declining breast cancer mortality. — Sy Mukherjee, Fortune, "Tens of Thousands of Early Breast Cancer Patients May Not Need Chemo After All," 4 June 2018 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun They are first injected with adjuvant, which stimulates their immune system to produce enough antibodies to neutralize the venom. — Theresa Machemer, Smithsonian Magazine, "The Future of Antivenom May Start With Mini Lab-Grown Snake Glands," 30 Jan. 2020 Some vaccines contain chemicals that enhance the immune system's memory, promoting the formation of a long-term response to pathogens (called adjuvants). — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "Injecting the flu vaccine into a tumor gets the immune system to attack it," 30 Dec. 2019 The results, published earlier this week in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, pertained to a pool of 430 infants and toddlers who were given the oral vaccine, given either on its own or with an additional adjuvant. — Benjamin Vanhoose, PEOPLE.com, "Diarrhea Vaccine Found to Be Safe for Children, Scientists Say," 22 Nov. 2019 Symptoms are said to appear up to 2 decades after exposure to an adjuvant and include anything from dry mouth to memory loss. — Kai Kupferschmidt, Science | AAAS, "Top Israeli immunologist accused of promoting antivaccine views," 6 Nov. 2019 This would build on learnings from current vaccines and seek to engage new mechanisms of protection, antigenic targets, adjuvants and structural biology for antigen design. — William Warren, Scientific American, "Sanofi Pasteur: fighting influenza by improving today and innovating for tomorrow," 18 Sep. 2019 Both countries had used Pandemrix, a vaccine made in Germany by GSK that contained the adjuvant AS03. — Helen Branswell, STAT, "A stubborn medical mystery: Was pandemic flu vaccine tied to an increase in narcolepsy cases?," 5 July 2018 But Ontario, which used a different vaccine with the AS03 adjuvant, did not, according to a study there. — Helen Branswell, STAT, "A stubborn medical mystery: Was pandemic flu vaccine tied to an increase in narcolepsy cases?," 5 July 2018 Back in the late 1980s, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry injected the right hind paw of a rat with Freund’s complete adjuvant, a compound that triggers inflammation, as part of a test of chronic pain treatments. — Jonathon Keats, Discover Magazine, "Building a Better Painkiller," 11 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'adjuvant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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“Adjuvant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adjuvant. Accessed 21 Feb. 2020.

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More Definitions for adjuvant

adjuvant

adjective

ad·ju·vant | \ ˈaj-ə-vənt

Medical Definition of adjuvant

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : serving to aid or contribute

2 : assisting in the prevention, amelioration, or cure of disease adjuvant chemotherapy following surgery

adjuvant

noun

Medical Definition of adjuvant (Entry 2 of 2)

: one that helps or facilitates: as

a : an ingredient (as in a prescription or solution) that facilitates or modifies the action of the principal ingredient the beneficial activity of the spray is enhanced by adjuvants

b : something (as a drug or method) that enhances the effectiveness of a medical treatment used chemotherapy as an adjuvant to surgery

c : a substance enhancing the immune response to an antigen

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