Types of Cancer
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. However, advances in detection, diagnosis and treatment have significantly increased the survival rate for many people with cancer.
What is Cancer?
Cancer begins when cells, the building blocks of life, grow and divide out of control. These abnormal cells form growths called tumors. There are two types of tumors:
Benign: This tumor is not cancer. Benign growths do not spread and can usually be surgically removed.
Malignant: This tumor is cancer. It is also called a malignancy.
Types of Cancer
There are more than 100 different types of cancer. The most common type of cancer is nonmelanoma skin cancer.
Other than skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men.
The types of cancer are named after the area of the body in which the cancer develops. For example, breast cancer begins in the breast. Lung cancer begins in the lung.
Main cancer categories include:
Carcinoma: Cancer that begins in the skin or the cells that line or cover internal organs, such as the stomach, liver, colon, pancreas and bladder.
Sarcoma: Cancer begins in connective or supportive tissue such as bone, fat, nerves and muscle.
Leukemia: Cancer that starts in blood cells.
Lymphoma or myeloma: Cancer that begins in the immune system.
Central nervous system cancers: Cancers that begin in the brain or spinal cord.
Metastasis
Cancer that begins in one part of the body may enter the blood stream or lymph system and spread, or metastasizes, to other parts of the body.
Cancer that begins in the breast, for example, may invade nearby lymph nodes under the arm and spread to the brain. This is called metastatic breast cancer, not brain cancer, because the cancerous cells in the brain are the same cancerous cells that formed the original tumor in the breast.
Common Types of Cancer
Bladder Cancer
Brain Tumors
Breast Cancer
Cervical Cancer
Colorectal Cancer
Esophageal Cancer
Hodgkin's Disease
Kidney Cancer
Larynx Cancer
Leukemia
Lung Cancer
Melanoma
Multiple Myeloma
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
Oral Cancer
Ovarian Cancer
Pancreatic Cancer
Prostate Cancer
Skin Cancer (nonmelanoma)
Stomach Cancer
Thyroid Cancer
Uterine Cancer
Some information on this page is provided by the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society.