YOUR CANCER YOUR LIFE – TYPES OF CANCER (GENERAL INFORMATION)
Cancer is classified according to the cell of origin and the organ of origin. For example, the most common type of cancer in women is called adenocarcinoma of the breast. ‘Adeno’ tells us that the cancer began in the cells lining the milk-producing glands in the breast. ‘Carcinoma’ just means cancer. There are other types of cancer which start from different cells in the breast and these have different names.
The only way we can tell the exact type of cancer is by looking at a specimen under the microscope. There is more about this in the next chapter.
Wherever cancer growths are in the body, they are still named according to where the primary growth was—that is, where the cancer started. If a cancer starting in the breast spreads to the bones or liver, it is still called breast cancer, not bone or liver cancer. This is because it still looks like breast cancer under the microscope and it still acts like breast cancer. The secondary growths in the bones or liver will react to the treatments to which breast cancer reacts. A primary cancer of the bone (one starting there) would behave differently and respond to quite different sorts of treatment.
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