CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol 13, 227-231, Copyright
© 1963 by American Cancer Society
A Proposed Glossary of Cancer
Hayes Martin M.D.1
1 Attending Surgeon Emeritus, Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, New York City.
The following abridgement is intended for the convenience of and usage by those medical writers and medical editors who may find themselves in agreement with the logic of the foregoing discussion.
Cancer: An inclusive term for all forms of malignant neoplasia. Synonyms—malignant growth, malignant tumor or, where the antecedent is plain, simply growth, tumor, lesion. ("Malignancy," "malignant disease," and "carcinoma" should not be used as synonyms for cancer.)
Carcinoma: (cf. sarcoma, lymphoma, melanoma, et al.). A cancer arising from epithelial tissues. This term alone, like its collaterals (sarcoma et al.), should seldom if ever be used without qualifying prefixes (e.g., squamous carcinoma, neurosarcoma). In most instances where the term "carcinoma" is used alone and nonspecifically, the all-inclusive term cancer is to be preferred.
Malignancy: An abstraction, a property of many diseases, of which cancer is one. It is ungrammatical and incorrect as a synonym for cancer.
Malignant Disease: Incorrect when used as a synonym for cancer. Cancer is not the only malignant disease, nor is it even the most malignant.
Biopsy: A long and somewhat involved process, beginning with the removal of tissue from a living subject and ending with the microscopist's interpretation. A surgeon, therefore, does not take a biopsy. He simply initiates the process by taking a specimen for biopsy.
Operable and Inoperable: The true definitions of these terms actually depend mainly on the patient's consent or lack of consent to an operation or the absolute lack of facilities for surgery. It is too often used as a feeble excuse and face saver for inaction in advanced cases of cancer where there is a chance of cure by competent surgery.
Resectable and Nonresectable (in toto): Wholly necessary descriptive terms which are not in all cases synonymous with the conventional meanings of the terms operable and inoperable.
