An article to answer the real difference between tumor and cancer

Cancer is a terrible disease with a high morbidity and mortality rate, which makes people talk cancerous

What are the facts? What are the differences and connections between tumor and cancer? Today, we will introduce the relationship between tumor and cancer

On the whole, tumors and cancers are both related and distinct.

Tumor = benign tumor + malignant tumor

Malignant tumor = cancer + sarcoma

Malignant tumor = cancer

Tumor

A tumor is an abnormal mass or neoplasm that grows from cells that divide and proliferate more than normal in the body, or cells that should die under normal circumstances have not died

According to the degree of differentiation of tumors, as well as recurrence and metastasis, it can be divided into benign tumors and malignant tumors

Benign tumor

Benign tumors are those tumors that stay in the original site and do not invade surrounding tissues or other parts of the body, such as uterine fibroids and skin lipomas

However, some special types of benign tumors can turn into malignant tumors, such as colorectal polyps, which require close monitoring and timely surgical removal

Malignant tumor

Malignant tumors have irregular borders.

Although malignant tumors tend to grow faster and more dangerous than benign tumors, some benign tumors can also cause serious harm to the human body, such as benign tumors in the brain

It should be noted that some malignant tumors will not form solid tumors, such as leukemia

According to the source of tumor cells, malignant tumors can be divided into carcinomas and sarcomas

cancer

Carcinoma is the most common type of malignant tumor, formed by epithelial cells

Cancers originating from different types of epithelial cells have different names, such as adenocarcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma

Adenocarcinoma is a cancer formed in epithelial cells that produce fluid or mucus, and tissues with such epithelial cells are sometimes called glandular tissues

Basal cell carcinoma is a malignant tumor that starts in the lower or basal layer of the epidermis (skin) and is the most common skin malignant tumor

Squamous cell carcinoma is a malignant tumor formed in squamous cells

Transitional cell carcinoma is a type of cancer that forms in epithelial tissue called transitional epithelium, or urothelium
.
This tissue is composed of multiple layers of epithelial cells, which are found in the lining of the bladder, ureter, part of the kidney (renal pelvis), and a few other organs
.
Some bladder cancer, ureteral cancer, and kidney cancer are transitional cell carcinomas
.

The name of the cancer is usually based on the organ or tissue in which it originally formed
.
For example, lung cancer starts in lung cells, and stomach cancer starts in stomach cells
.
Cancers can also be named by the cell types that form them, such as lung squamous cell carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, gastric adenocarcinoma, gastric squamous cell carcinoma, and the like
.

sarcoma

Sarcoma is a malignant tumor formed in the mesenchymal tissue of cartilage or soft tissue
.
Soft tissues include muscle, fat, blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and fibrous tissues (such as tendons and ligaments)
.

Osteosarcoma is the most common cartilage malignant tumor; the common types of soft tissue sarcoma are leiomyosarcoma, Kaposi's sarcoma, malignant fibrous histiocytoma, malignant liposarcoma and dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans
.

In addition, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, melanoma, and some brain and spinal cord tumors are also malignant tumors
.

People often use cancer to refer to malignant tumors, including carcinomas and sarcomas
.
When people talk about malignant tumors, they often omit the word "malignant" in front and only talk about "tumor"
.
This is one of the reasons why people sometimes cannot distinguish between the two names "cancer" and "tumor"
.

In daily life, if a doctor says that someone is suffering from cancer, it means that he has a malignant tumor; if he says that he has a tumor, it does not mean he has cancer.
It is most likely a benign tumor
.

Of course, we have adopted a simplified method here.
In fact, the classification and naming of tumors are much more complicated
.
In order to make it easier for everyone to understand, we have omitted many tumor types in the middle gray area
.

All in all, whether benign tumors or malignant tumors are found, they should be treated as soon as possible to prevent benign tumors from developing into malignant tumors and metastasis of malignant tumors to other organs
.
The earlier the treatment, the less damage
.