What is the difference between a malignant and a benign tumour?

Answer 1

A malignant tumor is cancerous and a benign tumor is not cancerous. Benign tumors are still dangerous and can kill, depending on the type of benign tumor and it's location. Also, contrary to what some of the answers have said, some benign tumors do spread to other areas of the body. Here is one example. Read the last line of the first paragraph of this article about one type of benign bone tumor that can spread to the lungs.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/fact/thr_report.cfm?Thread_ID=475&topcategory=Tumors

A benign meningioma is an example of a benign tumor that can be very dangerous or fatal if located in an inoperable area of the brain or brain stem.

http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Cancertype/Brain/Typesofbraintumour/Meningioma

Answer 2

Tumours can be benign (not a cancer) or malignant (a cancer). Benign tumours do not invade other tissues or spread to other parts of the body, although they can expand to interfere with health structures. The main features of a malignant tumour (cancer) are its ability to grow in an uncontrolled way and to invade and spread to other parts of the body (metastasise).

Answer 3

A benign tumour is a tumor which does not spread to other parts of the body from its origin. A melignant tumour spreads to other parts of the body. ayhis process is called as metastasis. The cells from a Malignant tumour have lost the self control to stop multiplication. They go on multiplying at a very rapid rate & that is why they spread to other parts of the body.

Answer 4

A Benign tumour is on which does not spread to other parts of the body and it remains localised.A Benign tumour can be removed by mere surgery.A Malignant tumour is one which spreads to the other parts of the body.This produces secondary tumours and is dangerous to the body tissues and cells.The movement of cancerous cells is called metastasis.
Cancer can be divided into 4 types:-
1)Sarcoma:-It is the cancer of muscles and connective tissues.Eg:-bone cancer,cartilage cancer
2)Carcinoma:-It is the cancer of the Epithelial tissue.Eg:-Cancer of the intestine,uterus,liver
3)Lymphoma:-It is the cancer of the lymph glandsEg:-Hodgkin's disease.
4)Leukaemia:-It is the cancer of the blood.Eg:-Cancer of the bone marrow.

Answer 5

Malignant means it is cancerous and benign means the tumor is not cancerous.

Answer 6

one is curable and the other is not. benign is curable malignant isnt.