Health Conditions

What is it?

Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth or spread of abnormal cells. The abnormal cells can form a mass, or a tumor. Tumors can either be "benign" (not harmful) or "malignant" (cancerous). If the cells grow out of control but are not able to invade other tissues, the tumor is benign. Cells that grow out of control, invade other tissues, and spread to other parts of the body represent malignant tumors (cancer). Malignant tumors can spread to other parts of the body by shedding cells into the blood or lymph system.

Cancers are classified according to their origin and the type of tissue involved. Types of cancers include:

• Carcinomas, which begin in tissues like the skin, mucous membranes, stomach, or intestines.This group includes the most common forms of cancer such as breast, prostate, colon, and lung cancers.
• Sarcomas, which originate in muscle or connective tissues such as bone, cartilage, and fat.
• Leukemias, which involve blood cells.
• Lymphomas, which affect lymph nodes throughout the body.
• Blastomas, which originate from immature embryonic cells

Malignant tumors are usually named using -carcinoma, -sarcoma or -blastoma added to the end of the Latin or Greek word for the organ of origin as the root. For instance, adeno- is the Greek word that relates to glandular tissue, therefore a malignant cancer of a glandular tissue is adenocarcinoma. From this you can see that the beginning portion of the word is adeno- and the ending portion is carcinoma.

Benign tumors are also named adding -oma to the end of the Latin or Greek word for with the organ involved. For instance, a benign tumor of the glandular tissue is an adenoma.

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