By Antin. There are several general categories of cancer according the origin of cancer:

· Carcinomas, cancer that arise from epithelial surfaces.

· Adenocarcinomas, cancer that arise from glandular type of surface.

· Sarcomas, cancer that arise from supporting structures such as bone, fat and fibrous tissue, muscle, and cartilage.

· Leukemia, cancer that arise from blood cell elements.

· Lymphomas, cancer that arise from lymph nodes

Carcinomas and adenocarcinomas are the most common types of cancer. This major group of cancers arises from structures that are in contact with the environment. They include lung, breast, prostate, intestinal, skin, ovary, cervix, oral, kidney and bladder. Any other cancer such as brain cancers, nerve cancers, melanomas, and certain testicular and ovarian cancers do not fall into any general category.

Epithelial or epithelium is synonymous with the words lining or covering. Skin is an epithelial lining of the exposed parts of the body. We also have epithelial lining at mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach, intestine, large bowel, and out the anus. A similar path can be traced from the breast through the nipple into a milk duct and finally into a milk gland. The type of epithelium on the exposed parts of the body is called squamous epithelium. This type could be found at mouth, throat, esophagus, and anus.Stomach, intestine, large bowel have glandular type of epithelial lining.

Cancers are thought to arise as a single cell. The location and type of that cell is the site of the primary cancer. Cancers are named for the primary site of origin, i.e., skin, colon, breast, brain, etc. If a cancer is found in the liver that originated in the colon it is called colon cancer metastatic to the liver, not a liver cancer. Liver cancers are those that originated from a liver cell in the liver. If a liver cancer spreads to the lung it is still liver cancer, not lung cancer.


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