THE CANCER TERMS; C

The terms used to describe cancer in word list; C


Cancer; (medical term: malignant neoplasm) is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood).

Carcinoid. A well differentiated neoplasm of the diffuse endocrine system.

Carcinoma. "A malignant growth made of epithelial cells tending to infiltrate the surrounding tissues and give rise to metastasis"; epithelial cells "line" body surfaces.

Carcinoma of the gallbladder and extrahepatic bile ducts. A malignant epithelial tumour with glandular differentiation, arising in the gallbladder or extrahepatic biliary system.

Carcinoma of the small intestine. A malignant epithelial tumour of the small
intestine. Neoplasms of the periampullary region include those of the duodenal mucosa, ampulla of Vater, common bile duct and pancreatic ducts.

Celsus (28-50 B.C.) A Roman physician, later translated the Greek term into cancer, the Latin word for crab.

Chemotherapy; is the use of drugs to more specifically kill cancer cells. It destroys the hard-to-detect cancer cells that have spread and are circulating in the body. Chemotherapeutic drugs can be taken either orally (by mouth) or intravenously, and may be given alone or in conjunction with surgery, radiation, or both.

Clean margins: means that the normal tissue around the tumor is free of cancer cells

Colloid. A type of invasive cancer that grows into the normal tissue around it; it usually grows slowly.

Combined hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma. A rare tumour containing unequivocal elements of both hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma that are intimately admixed. This tumour should be distinguished from separate hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma arising in the same liver {605}. Such tumours may be widely separated or close to each other (‘collision tumour’).

Comedo. A type of non-invasive cancer that usually does not spread; it tends to grow fast.

Core needle biopsy. The size of the syringe needle used in a core needle biopsy is larger than the one in a fine needle biopsy, so that a cylinder of tissue can be obtained. If a fine needle biopsy cannot provide a definitive diagnosis, the doctor may want to do a core needle biopsy. Core biopsies are often performed instead of fine needle aspiration biopsies because they provide more tissue to review.

Choriocarcinoma. An aggressive tumour, associated with elevated levels of serum human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), composed of cytotrophoblastic cells intermingled with syncytiotrophoblastic cells immunoreactive for hCG. Choriocarcinoma can be ‘pure’ or associated with mucinous cystadenocarcinoma.

Cowden syndrome (CS). is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by multiple hamartomas involving organs derived from all three germ cell layers.The classical hamartoma associated with CS is the trichilemmoma. Affected family members have a high risk of developing breast and non-medullary thyroid carcinomas. Clinical manifestaions further include mucocutaneous lesions, thyroid abnormalities, fibrocystic disease of the breast, gastrointestinal hamartomas, early-onset uterine leiomyomas, macrocephaly, mental retardation and dysplastic gangliocytoma of the cerebellum (Lhermitte-Duclos). The syndrome is caused by germline mutations of the PTEN / MMAC1 gene.

Cribriform: a type of non-invasive cancer that does not spread and usually grows slowly.

Cure. A cancer patient is "cured" if they live past the time by which 95% of treated patients live after the date of their diagnosis of cancer. For example in the case of Hodgkin's disease this period of time is 10 years, whereas for Burkitt's lymphoma this period would be 1 year. The phrase "cure" used in oncology is based upon the statistical concept of a median survival time and disease-free median survival time.

Cycle. Chemotherapy drugs are often given in the same order on the same schedule repeatedly; the term "cycle" refers to the basic plan that gets repeated over and over again; the cycle is different for each chemotherapy protocol.

Cytology. This refers to the microscopic examination of cells that have been removed from the body (either by aspiration or by other techniques).

Cytoreductive surgery; is a procedure where the doctor removes as much of the cancer as possible, and then treats the remaining with radiation therapy or chemotherapy or both.