Cancer and Tumor Terms

A rare cancer that forms in the islets of Langerhans cells (a type of cell found in the pancreas).

A mass of abnormal cells that forms in the endocrine (hormone-producing) tissues of the pancreas.

A rare form of childhood leukemia in which cancer cells often spread into tissues such as the skin, lung, and intestines.

A type of cancer that begins in plasma cells (white blood cells that produce antibodies).

A type of cancer characterized by the abnormal growth of blood vessels that develop into skin lesions or occur internally.

Kidney cancer includes renal cell carcinoma in adults and Wilms tumor in young children, arising from different structures within the kidney.

A tumor whose whole difficulty is its address: small, slow to declare itself, and sitting where the liver's plumbing converges.

Cancer found in the ovary that started in the stomach, and a sign the original disease has already traveled.

Long filed as an odd inflammatory reaction, it is now recognized as a clonal growth driven by a mutation in one signaling route.

Lung cancer in which the cells are large and look abnormal when viewed under a microscope.

Laryngeal cancer forms in the larynx, the structure used for breathing, swallowing, and speech, and most often begins in its lining cells.

A term used to describe cancer that is far along in its growth, and has spread to the lymph nodes or other places in the body.

Abnormal cells filling the milk-producing lobules, treated as a warning sign for both breasts rather than as a cancer of one.

Cancer that stops behaving like a lump and starts behaving like a fluid, settling wherever spinal fluid happens to flow.

A cancer with no lump to find, because the affected cells travel in the bloodstream instead of forming a mass.

Cancer is found in one lung, the tissues between the lungs, and nearby lymph nodes only.

Liver cancer includes primary tumors starting in the liver itself and, more commonly, secondary tumors that spread there from cancer elsewhere in the body.

The liver filters blood arriving straight from the gut, which is why so many cancers place their first distant deposit there.

A breast cancer that spreads through tissue in single file rather than forming a lump, which is why imaging so often underestimates it.

An invasive malignant cancer confined entirely to the organ where the cancer began.