The term cancer means malignant neoplasm, an unchecked, noxious and aberrant proliferation of an organic territory which can eventually kill the subject.
There is a great variety of cancers, since they can arise from virtually all tissues. ‘Carcinomas’, the epithelial type of cancers, are the most frequent and among them breast, lung, larynx, prostate and those from the digestive tract have the highest incidence. More infrequent are ‘sarcomas’, a type of cancer derived from mesenchymal tissues (connective, bone, muscle, vessels), which have a special incidence in paediatric ages. Also important due to their frequency are malignant neoplasms derived from lymphoid cells: lymphomas, which are subclassified in Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin type based on the presence or not of a peculiar type of neoplastic cell: Reed-Sternberg cells.
The aggressiveness of cancers resides in their potential for destroying tissues which are locally invaded and for colonizing other distant territories in which they can again grow and destroy organs: the metastases.
There is below a list of the most common tumour types in the organs with the highest incidence of malignant tumours.
• Breast
• Prostate
• Colon
• Lung
• Larynx
• Endometrium
• Ovary
• Cervix
• Liver
• Kidney
• Bladder
• Lymphoid organs
• Prostate
• Colon
• Lung
• Larynx
• Endometrium
• Ovary
• Cervix
• Liver
• Kidney
• Bladder
• Lymphoid organs
