Lung cancer starts in lung tissue. Most lung cancers begin in the cells that line the airways. Others begin in the cells lining the tiny air sacs where oxygen passes into the blood. As a lung cancer grows, it can invade surrounding lung tissue and reach the lung surface. It can also spread to nearby …
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Colorectal cancer starts in the lining of the large intestine. The large intestine includes the colon and the rectum. Almost all of these cancers begin in the gland-forming cells that line the inside of the bowel. From there, they grow outward into the wall. Pathologists call growth beyond the lining invasion. Once it happens, the …
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Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, usually shortened to VHL, is an inherited condition that causes tumors and cysts to develop in several organs. It is caused by a change in a single gene, also called VHL. It affects roughly 1 in 36,000 people. The tumors it causes share an unusual feature: nearly all of them are built …
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Prostate cancer starts in the prostate, a small organ that sits below the bladder in men. The prostate produces part of the fluid in semen. Almost all prostate cancers begin in the cells lining its small glands. As a prostate cancer grows, it can spread into the supporting tissue around those glands. It can reach …
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Invasive breast cancer starts in the breast. The breast is made of small glands that produce milk and ducts that carry it to the nipple. Almost all breast cancers begin in the cells lining those glands and ducts. Invasive means the cancer cells have broken out of the gland or duct where they started. They …
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When a cancer is removed or sampled, the pathologist reports the findings in a standard format called a synoptic report. It looks like a list of headings, each followed by a short answer: tumor type, grade, size, margins, lymph nodes, stage, and so on. The headings come from a published checklist. Laboratories across North America, …
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Dysplasia in Barrett esophagus is a precancerous change in the gland-forming cells that line a segment of Barrett esophagus. Barrett esophagus is a condition in which the normal squamous lining of the lower esophagus has been replaced by glandular cells resembling those of the intestine, usually after years of acid reflux. Dysplasia means those replacement …
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Minimal change disease is a kidney condition that causes large amounts of protein to leak into the urine. Its name comes from the way it looks under an ordinary microscope: the kidney appears essentially normal, with only minimal or no visible change. The real abnormality is invisible at that level and can be seen only …
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Lupus nephritis is inflammation and injury of the kidneys caused by systemic lupus erythematosus (usually just called lupus), an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues. In lupus nephritis, the immune system forms clumps called immune complexes that lodge in the kidney’s tiny filters and trigger inflammation. It is one …
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A liquid biopsy is a test that looks for signs of cancer in a blood sample, rather than in a piece of tumor tissue. The most common form looks for circulating tumor DNA, usually shortened to ctDNA, which are small fragments of genetic material that a cancer sheds into the bloodstream. By reading these fragments, …
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