Cancer and Tumor Terms

The commonest cancers in people with pale skin, grouped together by what they are not rather than by what they are.

Cancer that has not spread from the primary site (place where it started) to other places in the body.

Cancer in which the site of the primary (original) tumor cannot be found.

Ocular melanoma is a rare cancer of the pigment producing cells within the eye, most often arising in the middle layer called the uvea.

A rare, slow-growing tumor that begins in oligodendrocytes (cells that cover and protect nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord).

A brain tumor from the cells that insulate nerve fibers, now identified by a pair of genetic changes rather than by appearance alone.

One word covering hundreds of separate diseases, oncology holds together because the questions asked of every cancer are broadly the same.

Naming an outcome and not a method, the word covers anything that leaves cancer cells broken open, from a drug to a virus.

Oral cancer arises in the tissues of the mouth, most often as squamous cell carcinoma linked to tobacco and heavy alcohol use.

Cancer that forms in tissues of the oral cavity (the mouth).

Oropharyngeal cancer develops in the back of the throat, including the tonsils and base of tongue, with a growing share linked to HPV infection.

A cancer of the bone that usually affects the large bones of the arm or leg.

The tumor makes bone, which is what gives it away on an X-ray and what separates it from cancer that merely arrived in bone.

A condition in which cells that may become cancer form in the thin layer of tissue that covers an ovary (female reproductive gland in which eggs are made).

Early symptoms are so ordinary, bloating and pelvic discomfort among them, that the disease is usually advanced when found.

A cancer vaccine comprised of synthetic peptides corresponding to naturally-occurring peptides derived from ovarian cancer cell antigens.

Cancer that occurs in the cells on the surface of the ovary.

An abnormal mass of tissue that forms in germ (egg) cells in the ovary (female reproductive gland in which the eggs are formed).

Funds awarded to certain U.S.

A Pancoast tumor is a lung cancer at the lung's apex that can invade nearby nerves, causing distinctive shoulder and arm symptoms.