Categorizaton of Tumors

Tumors are often placed under one of two categories; malignant or benign. Malignant tumors are cancerous and benign tumors are non-cancerous.

ELSI breast tumor (http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/cancer-tumor.html)

Benign Tumors

  • no anaplasia
  • noninvasive
  • encapsulated
  • slow growing no metastases
  • highly differentiated
  • mitoses rare

ELSI brain tumor (http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/cancer-tumors.html)

Malignant Tumors

  • anaplastic
  • metastasizing
  • nonencapsulated
  • invasive
  • tendency toward de-differentiation
  • mitoses relatively common
  • usually rapid growth

An animation of carcinogenesis.

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