Cancer and Tumor Terms

A general term for tumors of the central nervous system, including astrocytomas, ependymal tumors, glioblastoma multiforme, and primitive neuroectodermal tumors.

What makes it so hard to remove is not its size but its edges, which merge into brain that looks and behaves normally.

The commonest malignant brain tumor in adults, named for how many different faces it presents under a microscope.

A glioma is a tumor arising from glial cells that support the nervous system, ranging from slow growing to highly aggressive.

An immune response to a person's tumor cells by immune cells present in a donor's transplanted tissue, such as bone marrow or peripheral blood.

A malignant, green-colored tumor of myeloid cells (a type of immature white blood cell).

An ovarian tumor arising from the cells that nurse a developing egg, and one that usually keeps making estrogen.

Cancer of the female reproductive tract, including the cervix, endometrium, fallopian tubes, ovaries, uterus, and vagina.

A slow-growing blood cancer named for the fringed look of its cells, marked by a large spleen and low counts across the board.

Cancer that arises in the head or neck region (in the nasal cavity, sinuses, lips, mouth, salivary glands, throat, or larynx [voice box]).

Tumors that spread to the heart from cancer elsewhere in the body are considerably more common than cancer that originates in the heart itself.

A type of cancer involving blood vessels and soft tissue.

A rare cancer of the cells lining blood vessels, which is why it can begin almost anywhere in the body.

A cancer of the blood or bone marrow, such as leukemia or lymphoma.

A tumor of immature liver tissue in very young children, and among the more treatable childhood cancers when caught early.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common primary liver cancer, arising directly from liver cells and closely linked to cirrhosis and chronic viral hepatitis.

Hepatoma is an older, imprecise term for a liver tumor and has often been used to mean hepatocellular carcinoma.

A type of lymphoma that grows and spreads quickly and has severe symptoms.

Cancer that is likely to recur (come back), or spread.

An outdated term referring to non-Hodgkin lymphomas made up of large abnormal lymphoid cells.