A benign neoplasm is a medical term used to describe a non-cancerous tumor. The word “neoplasm” means a new growth of cells, and “benign” indicates that this growth is not cancerous. Benign neoplasms can develop in any part of the body, and their specific characteristics depend on the type of cells they contain. Unlike cancerous …
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Isolated tumour cells (sometimes shortened to ITCs) are tiny clusters of cancer cells found in a lymph node. These cells have spread from a cancer located somewhere else in the body, a process called metastasis. To be classified as isolated tumour cells, the cluster must be very small—either fewer than 200 cancer cells or smaller …
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A sentinel lymph node is the first lymph node or group of lymph nodes that cancer cells are most likely to reach if they begin to spread from the primary tumour. Lymph nodes are small, bean-shaped structures that are part of the lymphatic system, a network that helps the body fight infections and remove waste. …
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GATA3 (GATA binding protein 3) is a protein found in the nucleus of specific cells. It plays a crucial role in regulating how these cells grow and develop by controlling the activity of specific genes. GATA3 is especially important in the normal development of breast tissue, the urinary tract (urothelium), and certain immune cells. What …
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An abscess is a localized collection of pus — a thick fluid made up of dead cells, debris, and immune cells — that builds up inside body tissue. It forms when the body’s immune system mounts a strong response to an injury, infection, or other source of irritation, and the responding cells accumulate faster than …
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Parakeratosis is a word pathologists use to describe a change in the surface layer of squamous epithelium, which is the tissue that lines many parts of the body including the skin, mouth, throat, esophagus, cervix, and anal canal. In healthy tissue, the squamous cells at the surface mature and lose their nuclei (the part of …
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Lynch syndrome is an inherited condition that significantly increases the risk of developing several types of cancer, most commonly colorectal (colon and rectal) cancer and endometrial (uterine) cancer. It is caused by an inherited change in one of the genes responsible for making mismatch repair (MMR) proteins — a group of proteins that normally find …
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Hypertrophy is a non-cancerous condition characterized by an increase in the size of individual cells, resulting in an overall enlargement of the affected tissue or organ. It differs from hyperplasia, which involves increasing the number of cells rather than their size. The term hypertrophic is also used to describe tissues that have undergone hypertrophy. What …
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What does superficially invasive mean? Superficially invasive is a term pathologists use to describe cancer that has only spread a small distance into the non-cancerous surrounding tissue. The term ‘superficially invasive’ may be used to describe many different types of cancers. The actual distance that the tumour cells may spread into the normal tissue in …
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The lamina propria is a thin layer of soft tissue that sits just beneath the surface layer of many organs, including the digestive tract, respiratory tract, and urinary tract. This layer plays a crucial role in supporting the surface lining and maintaining the body’s health. What does the lamina propria do? The lamina propria has …
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