NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms (2024)

FAQs

What is the NCI definition of cancer? ›

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is the federal government's principal agency for cancer research and training. Established under the National Cancer Institute Act of 1937, NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of 11 agencies that make up the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In medicine, an abnormal lesion or growth in or on the body may be benign (not cancer), precancerous or premalignant (likely to become cancer), or malignant (cancer).

The NCI Dictionary of Genetics Terms contains technical definitions for 242 terms related to genetics. These definitions were developed by the PDQ® Cancer Genetics Editorial Board to support the evidence-based, peer-reviewed PDQ cancer genetics information summaries.

A term for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and can invade nearby tissues. Cancer cells can also spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems.

Three designations are recognized: Comprehensive Cancer Centers, Clinical Cancer Centers, and Basic Laboratory Cancer Centers.

The hallmarks constitute an organizing principle for rationalizing the complexities of neoplastic disease. They include sustaining proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling replicative immortality, inducing angiogenesis, and activating invasion and metastasis.

Hippocrates is credited with naming "cancer" as "karkinoma" (carcinoma) because a tumor looked like a "crab" ("karkinoma" is Greek for "crab") in that there is a central body to a tumor and the tumor extension appeared as the legs of the "crab".

Most types of cancer cells form a lump, or mass called a tumor. American Cancer Society (8) 2023. Cancer is a generic term for a large group of diseases that can affect any part of the body. Other terms used are malignant tumours and neoplasms.

Malignant: What's the Difference? Benign means not cancerous. A benign tumor can get larger but does not spread to other tissues or organs. Malignant means cancerous. A malignant tumor's cells can invade nearby tissue and lymph nodes and then spread to other organs.

Call us at 1-800-227-2345. Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) in Adults. About Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL)

What is the term for the cancer gene? ›

Cancer is a genetic disease; tumor cells differ from their normal progenitors by genetic alterations that affect growth-regulatory genes. There exist 2 classes of such cancer genes: the oncogenes, which function as positive growth regulators, and the tumor suppressor genes, which function as negative growth regulators.

The premise of the NCI method is that usual intake is equal to the probability of consumption on a given day times the average amount consumed on a "consumption day." The exact methods used for dietary components that are consumed nearly every day by nearly everyone differ slightly from those used for dietary ...

The National Cancer Institute conducts, coordinates, and funds cancer research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to the cause, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cancer. Access the National Cancer Institute Web site at http://www.cancer.gov. Also called NCI.

Cancer is not just one disease but rather a group of diseases, all of which cause cells in the body to change and grow out of control. Cancers are classified either according to the kind of fluid or tissue from which they originate, or according to the location in the body where they first developed.

Cancer refers to any one of a large number of diseases characterized by the development of abnormal cells that divide uncontrollably and have the ability to infiltrate and destroy normal body tissue. Cancer often has the ability to spread throughout your body.

Cancer survivorship is a state of being, including the perspectives, needs, health, and the physical, psychological, social, and economic challenges experienced by people and caregivers after a cancer diagnosis. Definition of Cancer Survivorship, definition and graphic developed by the National Cancer Institute.

Cancer refers to diseases in which abnormal cells divide out of control and are able to invade other tissues.

(KLIH-nih-kul REE-serch) Research in which people, or data or samples of tissue from people, are studied to understand health and disease. Clinical research helps find new and better ways to detect, diagnose, treat, and prevent disease.

Carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP) is a rare disease in which malignant (cancer) cells are found in the body but the place the cancer began is not known. Sometimes the primary cancer is never found. The signs and symptoms of CUP are different, depending on where the cancer has spread in the body.