cubic centimeter
Meaning of cubic centimeter: Volume, not length: reporting a lesion in cubic centimeters captures how much of it there is, which three measurements alone do not.
Definition of cubic centimeter
A cubic centimeter is a metric unit of volume, the space filled by a cube measuring one centimeter along each edge. It equals exactly one milliliter, and a thousand of them make one liter. Medicine and science use it for volumes of fluid and medication, and radiology reports use it to express the size of a mass or a fluid collection.
How does it relate to the other units?
The unit is built from length rather than from the liter. A cube one centimeter on every side encloses one cubic centimeter, and that volume was defined to match one milliliter exactly. Nothing is lost or gained in moving between the two, which is why they are used interchangeably and why the abbreviation cc persists alongside mL. Scaling upward, a thousand cubic centimeters make one liter, so a liter is a cube ten centimeters on each side.
| Volume | Same as | Shape it describes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 cubic centimeter | 1 milliliter | A cube 1 cm on each side |
| 1000 cubic centimeters | 1 liter | A cube 10 cm on each side |
| 1 million cubic centimeters | 1 cubic meter | A cube 100 cm on each side |
Why do imaging reports use it?
A scan can measure a lesion in three directions, and those three numbers describe its shape. Volume describes how much of it there is, and volume is what changes most visibly as something grows or shrinks. A lesion that doubles in each direction grows eightfold in volume, so a modest change in the linear measurements can represent a large change in bulk. Giving the size of a mass in cubic centimeters makes comparison between one study and the next direct rather than a matter of interpretation. The same unit describes fluid drained from a body cavity and the estimated volume of an organ.
Is it the same as a gram?
No, and the two are easily blurred. A cubic centimeter measures space, while a gram measures mass. They coincide only for water at ordinary temperature, where one cubic centimeter weighs close to one gram. Denser material weighs more per cubic centimeter and lighter material weighs less, so a volume cannot be read off as a weight without knowing what the substance is. That distinction matters whenever a specimen weight and a fluid volume appear in the same report and the numbers look deceptively comparable.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
The radiology report described the mass as measuring several cubic centimeters in volume.
Good to know
A volume reported in cubic centimeters is numerically identical to the same volume reported in milliliters, a relationship commonly relied on when describing the size of a mass or a fluid collection on imaging.