what is malignant cancer?

Question

15 months ago had tinomo scca of the right lateral tongue s/p WLE and bilateral neck dissection. cut throat ear to ear removed all lympnodes,cancer tumor back in neck area and behind ear

Answer 1

I believe that tinomo is the staging of the tumor.
SCCA is squamous cell carcinoma of the adenoids (tonsils)
S/P means status post (or after surgery)..
WLE is wide local excision (cutting)
bilateral means both sides of the neck were cut in surgery.
all cancer is malignant (growing in a bad way)...benign means a tumor is growing, but in a more controlled fashion..

1. T1: Greatest diameter of primary tumor less than 2 cm (2.5cm = 1inch)
2.NO: No clinically positive nodes (GOOD no lymph nodes found to be involved)
3.MO: No known distant metastasis (GOOD no distant spread of the cancer was found)

The most common cancers that occur in the tonsils are squamous cell carcinoma (SCCA).

http://www.gbmc.org/headandneckrehab/diagnosisprocedures#cancerstaging

http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/dermsurgery/print.cfm?displayPrint=1&id=e7933c72-9d30-442a-8972da46daae9741&method=displayfull&pn=75b08ecf-fa9f-4da0-a4c6070e13de24e7&PrintPage=1

http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/dermsurgery/display.cfm?id=e7933c72-9d30-442a-8972da46daae9741&method=displayfull&pn=75b08ecf-fa9f-4da0-a4c6070e13de24e7#wle

Sounds like you have been through a rough time. Hope you are better now.

Answer 2

Malignant cancer is a tautologous term - cancer is ALWAYS malignant.
A TUMOUR can be malignant or benign (malignant tumour = cancer).

What you seem to be talking about is an AGGRESSIVE, INVASIVE cancer which has had a LOCAL RECURRENCE, which is quite common if the cancer had already spread too far before removing it and the lymph nodes, or if it was not removed completely. Often the lymph nodes which are taken out are totally clean, but if they contain cancer cells it is a sign that the cancer has started spreading.

If you have had a local recurrence, then the cancer has infiltrated (spread to) surrounding tissues. Options for treatment are :
1) re-surgery (though surgery sometimes "seeds" a cancer and it just spreads further, depending on what type of cancer it is)
2) chemotherapy
3) radiotherapy
4) combination of the above

When the cancer has METASTASIZED (spread to other organs that are not close to the original cancer) it is more serious, and chemotherapy is often the only option, and often unsuccessful.

Answer 3

Such a question is best answered by a doctor. However, there are several categories of cancer. The malignant kinds are generally those which are most injurious to the physical body.
Benign is less threatening to a person. The several kinds between those two are usually removed by various means to keep them from getting rooted too deeply in the skin or body.
Cancer is basically cells gone awry. They don't conform to natural cell growth, which is usually replacement or replenishing existing cells as time and life passes.
Any cancer, if left untreated, could become life threatening, or at least deforming or sickening to some degree.
Treat or remove is usually the medical stance taken

Answer 4

It is a matter of terminology, but try this. Take vitamin c. The FDA says that the RDA for vit c is 64 mg a day. Linus Pauling who got a Nobel Prize for his work on vit c and a second Nobel Prize for organic chemistry says 1000 mg a day normally and 2000 mg a day if you are sick. Try it. A few years ago there was a research paper out that said Interferon was the best cancer and infection fighter available, but it was $15,000 a gram. What the paper also said was that Interferon was the product of the natural breakdown of vit c in your system. Shortly after that paper came out the FDA tried to put vit c on prescription only. Guess why?? I had "something" that had me sick 2 weeks twice a year with at least one week in the middle flat on my back. After 25 years of doctors not knowing what it might be I started vitamin C therapy when I got sick. I took enough to keep me asymptomatic and just below too much to give me diarrhea. It followed a bell curve over 2 weeks and at the peak I was taking 40,000 mg a day with 300,000 mg over 2 weeks. I did that when I got sick for 2 years and have never gotten sick in the last 10 years. Look into it.

Answer 5

I think you are using the wrong term. I think what you want to know about is metastic cancer (which it sounds like you have) This is the spreading type of cancer) Metastic Cancer is really hard to treat as the main location of the cancer implants cancer cells all over the body and these cells become secondary cancer sites. It sounds like your doctor is doing all he can to keep the cancer in check. Good luck and may God bless.

Answer 6

Often cancers in their early stages will be confined to the organ or tissue where it is growing. Some cancers like basal cell carcinoma are famous for not spreading and staying in place. Malignancy means that some of the cancerous cells have left the primary tumor and have travelled in either the blood stream or lymphatics to another site in the body. At this other site the cells seed themselves and begin to grow at this distant site. Often the new site is the liver, or bone. If a cancer spreads it is sooo much more difficult to treat and is often fatal. This is why it is good to attack cancer in its early stages. I wish you well.

Answer 7

All cancers are malignant. There isn't anty such thing as a "non-malignant" cancer.

Note to the person below:

You are using a WRONG term. Spreading cancer is called METASTATIC, not malignant.