Tumor

Neoplastic tumor of the cheek skin, here a benign neoplasm of the sweat glands called Hidradenoma.

A tumor or tumour is the name for a swelling or lesion formed by an abnormal growth of cells (termed neoplastic).[1] Tumor is not synonymous with cancer. A tumor can be benign, pre-malignant or malignant, where as cancer is by definition malignant.

Contents

Etymology

The term tumour is derived, via the Old French tumour, from the Latin tumor "swelling". In the US it is shortened to tumor. It originally meant an abnormal swelling of the flesh. In contemporary English, tumor is synonymous with solid neoplasm,[2] all other forms of swelling being called swelling.[3] This usage is common also in medical literature, where the nouns tumefaction and tumescence, derived from the adjective tumefied, are the current medical terms for non-neoplastic swelling.

Cause

A neoplasm is an abnormal proliferation of tissues, usually caused by genetic mutations. Most neoplasms cause a tumor, with a few exceptions like leukemia or carcinoma in situ.

A tumor may be benign, pre-malignant or malignant. The nature of the tumor is determined by a pathologist after examination of the tumor tissues from a biopsy or a surgical excision specimen.

References

  1. ^ Tumor at Dorland's Medical Dictionary
  2. ^ Tumor in MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
  3. ^ Swelling in MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

External links

Open source encyclopedia content modification information:

This page was last modified on 1 March 2010 at 23:43.

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Tumor", which is available in its original form here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tumor

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