Cancer Terms Flashcards
1
Q
Cancer Buzz Words
- Good News
A
- Benign
- Low grade
- Radiosensitive
- No metastases
- Well differentiated
- Negative nodes
- In remission
- Surgically resectable
2
Q
Cancer Buzz Words
- Bad News
A
- Malignant
- High grade
- Radioresistant
- Metastases
- Poorly differentiated
- Positive nodes
- Relapse
- Inoperable
3
Q
Tumor Types
A
- Malignant vs. Benign (literally, “evil” versus “good”)
- Tumors are masses of cells that have slipped the bonds of control of cell multiplication
- Malignant tumors, cancers, are life-threatening because they are invasive (spread into surrounding organs) and metastasize (travel to other areas of the body to form new tumors)
- Invasiveness results in penetration, compression, and destruction of surrounding tissue causing such problems as loss of organ function (liver, kidneys), difficulty breathing (lungs), obstruction (intestines), possible catastrophic bleeding and severe pain
4
Q
Carcinoma
A
- Most common form of cancer
- Develops from sheets of cells that cover a surface (example: skin) or line a body cavity (example: glandular lining of stomach)
- Some names for tumors of this type would be: adenocarcinoma of the prostate, adenocarcinoma of the lung, gastric adenocarcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma
5
Q
Sarcoma
A
- Rare form of cancer arises from connective and supportive tissues, examples: bone, fat, muscle, and other connective tissues
- Some names of this type of tumor would be: osteosarcoma (malignancy of bone), liposarcoma (fat), and gastrointestinal stromal tumor
- The term sarcoma does not always appear in the name
6
Q
Grading and Staging
A
- Grade I to Grade IV, describes tissue differentiation
- Uses the letters T, N, M
- “T” = indicates size of tumor
- “N” = whether the cancer has spread into lymph nodes
- “M” = whether cancer cells have metastasized to other organs and areas - Example: melanoma T2N0M0 = Skin cancer that is between 1.0 and 2.0 mm in thickness, but has not spread into lymph nodes or other areas of the body
