Oncology (from greek óncos, mass and logos, study) is the branch of medicine that concerns the study and treatment of cancer .
Nomenclature
Neoplasia, Tumor, Cancer
Neoplasia (from the greek new, new, and Plas, training) is the abnormal and uncontrolled proliferation of cells in a tissue or an organ of the body. Most of the malignancies proliferate to form masses (more or less) distinct from the area in which they arise. In this sense, the term cancer is used synonymously with cancer (from the Latin Tume, swollen).
Malignant tumors show a high degree of anaplasia, and have the ability to invade adjacent structures and the ability to spread to other organs through the lymphatic system and bloodstream.
The term cancer is usually used as synonymous with malignancy. The most common form of cancer is the cancer , a class of malignant tumors that arise from the epithelial cells in the skin, gastrointestinal tract and other internal organs (when it comes glandular epithelia interests of adenocarcinoma ).
As an example of cancers other than cancer, may be mentioned the sarcomas that arise from cells of the soft tissues (muscles, blood vessels, adipose tissue) and bone, gliomas , resulting from the processing cell glial cells of the system CNS , the lymphomas , which arise from neoplastic transformation of lymphocytes.
Alcohol and staging
At the clinical level the "degree" and "stage" of the tumor are important additional factors that influence the choice of treatment and allow the formulation of a prognosis.
The grade is based on a combination of histological features, in particular the level of atypia, nuclear and cell differentiation, reflecting the aggressiveness of a tumor. Is numerically controlled (grade 1-4) or descriptively ("high" level, "low" level). In general, including nuclear atypia and differentiation there is an inverse correlation, the higher the degree of nuclear atypia, are less differentiated tumor cells, a low-grade cancer is usually made up of well-differentiated cells.
The TNM staging system, developed and maintained by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) , is the most widely used for classifying the extent of a cancer. The system is based on the size of primary tumor (T), the absence or presence of lymph node metastasis of the primary organs involved (N), and the absence or presence of distant metastases (ie, in other organs) (M). Besides the three principal axes T, N, M, the system allows the encoding accessory elements of the extension of the disease: the invasion of lymphatic vessels (L axis), the invasion of the venous vessels (V axis), the extension residual disease after therapy (R-axis). Finally, there are several changes to allow recording of details.