Cancer and Tumor Terms

Cancer has spread from the mucosa (innermost layer) of the colon and/or rectal wall to the submucosa (layer of tissue under the mucosa) of the colon and/or rectal wall.

Cancer has spread (1) through the muscle layer of the colon and/or rectal wall to the serosa (outermost layer) of the colon and/or rectal wall; or (2) through the serosa of the colon and/or rectal…

Cancer (1) may have spread through the mucosa (innermost layer) of the colon and/or rectal wall to the submucosa (layer of tissue under the mucosa) and may have spread to the muscle layer of the…

A type of tumor that begins in the type of cells that give rise to egg cells and is most often found in the ovaries.

Breast cancer that has not spread beyond the breast or the axillary lymph nodes.

A term used to describe cancer that is early in its growth, and may not have spread to other parts of the body.

The unifying feature is molecular rather than anatomic, which is why a bone tumor and a chest wall tumor sit in the same group.

Named for the tissue it imitates rather than the tissue it came from, which is why it appears in places holding no muscle.

A mass of rapidly growing cells that begins in embryonic (fetal) tissue.

Cancer that occurs in endocrine tissue, the tissue in the body that secretes hormones.

A tumor that is found in endocrine tissue but does not make extra hormones.

Endometrial cancer arises in the lining of the uterus and typically announces itself through abnormal vaginal bleeding, especially bleeding after menopause.

A type of brain tumor that begins in cells lining the spinal cord central canal (fluid-filled space down the center) or the ventricles (fluid-filled spaces of the brain).

A tumor growing from the lining of the brain's fluid spaces, able to shed cells into that fluid and settle further down.

Cancer that begins in squamous cells (thin, flat cells that look like fish scales).

Cancer of the blood-forming tissues in which large numbers of immature, abnormal red blood cells are found in the blood and bone marrow.

Lacking the outer wrapping that surrounds other digestive organs, the esophagus lets a tumor reach neighboring structures early.

Ewing sarcoma is an aggressive childhood and adolescent cancer of bone or soft tissue, marked by a characteristic chromosomal translocation involving the EWSR1 gene.

A disease in which malignant (cancer) cells are found in the tissues of the pancreas.

Cancer has spread outside of the lung in which it began or to other parts of the body.