Diccionario de cáncer del NCI (2024)

FAQs

What is cancer answers? ›

Cancer is a disease caused when cells divide uncontrollably and spread into surrounding tissues. Cancer is caused by changes to DNA. Most cancer-causing DNA changes occur in sections of DNA called genes. These changes are also called genetic changes.

Adenocarcinoma stages

Stage 1 adenocarcinoma: The cancer is small and contained to local tissue, and has not spread to nearby lymph nodes or to other organs. Stage 2 adenocarcinoma: The cancer cells have more deeply spread into nearby tissue and possibly into local lymph nodes, but not to distant organs.

stage 3 – the cancer is larger and may have spread to the surrounding tissues and/or the lymph nodes (or "glands", part of the immune system) stage 4 – the cancer has spread from where it started to at least 1 other body organ, also known as "secondary" or "metastatic" cancer.

At its most basic, cancer is a disease of the genes in the cells of our body. Genes control the way our cells work. But, changes to these genes can cause cells to malfunction, causing them to grow and divide when they should not—or preventing them from dying when they should. These abnormal cells can become cancer.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) block chemical messengers (enzymes) called tyrosine kinases. Tyrosine kinases help to send growth signals in cells, so blocking them stops the cell growing and dividing. Cancer growth blockers can block one type of tyrosine kinase or more than one type.

Is adenocarcinoma fatal? Adenocarcinoma prognosis varies depending on the type, location and size of the tumor. Cancers that are difficult to diagnose in the early stages are likely to be more fatal than cancers that are detectable early on.

Patients with localized gastric adenocarcinoma, the 5 years survival is roughly only 10%. 1-6 In general, long term survival is closely related to the stage of the disease and its anatomical location.

Adenocarcinoma may be aggressive depending on the organ involved. For example, adenocarcinoma of the lung is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Lung adenocarcinoma is fairly aggressive and results in a 5-year survival rate of 59.8% if there is no metastasis at the time of diagnosis.

Stage 4 cancer is a serious disease that requires immediate expert care. Patients may live for years following treatment for stage 4 cancer.

Can you survive cancer if it is in your lymph nodes? ›

Cancer in the lymph nodes is usually a sign that cancer is starting to spread, but it is often treatable. How serious it is will depend on many factors, such as the type of cancer, the rate at which it is growing, the person's overall health, and the treatment options available.

A tumor less than 2 cm is considered stage T1. Experts consider a tumor between 2 and 5 cm to be stage T2. If the tumor is greater than 5 cm, it's typically stage T3. A tumor at stage T4 has spread into the chest wall or skin.

Extreme fatigue that doesn't get better with rest can be an early sign of cancer. Cancer uses your body's nutrients to grow and advance, so those nutrients are no longer replenishing your body. This “nu*trient theft” can make you feel extremely tired.

It's because of this location, surrounded and obscured by internal organs, that pancreatic tumors are impossible to see or feel during a routine medical exam. Making diagnosis even more difficult is the fact that in its early stages, pancreatic cancer is usually a so-called “silent” disease and causes no symptoms.

Melanoma is a cancer of the skin, and it has a high survival rate because it is easy to detect in this part of the body. It is often possible to identify and treat melanoma in the early stages of its progression, which increases a person's chance of survival.

(KAN-ser) 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. There are several main types of cancer.

Cancer is a large group of diseases that can start in almost any organ or tissue of the body when abnormal cells grow uncontrollably, go beyond their usual boundaries to invade adjoining parts of the body and/or spread to other organs.

One defining feature of cancer is the rapid creation of abnormal cells that grow beyond their usual boundaries, and which can then invade adjoining parts of the body and spread to other organs; the latter process is referred to as metastasis. Widespread metastases are the primary cause of death from cancer.