Oncology & Cancer

How one type of lung cancer can transform into another

Lung tumors called adenocarcinomas sometimes respond to initially effective treatments by transforming into a much more aggressive small cell lung cancer (SCLC) that spreads rapidly and has few options for treatment. Researchers ...

Oncology & Cancer

What do you know about pancreatic cancer?

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, which makes this a good time to learn more about the risk factors for pancreatic cancer and what you can do to keep yourself safe.

Oncology & Cancer

Finding your niche: A synthetic cancer stem cell microenvironment

One of the biggest challenges in biomedical research is finding a way to capture the complexity of the human body in laboratory-based techniques, to enable them to be investigated accurately. Now, researchers from Japan report ...

Oncology & Cancer

Attacking the roots of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is not just one disease, but that's the way it is currently treated. New work from Tannishtha Reya's lab could help pave the way for a change. The research is published in the journal Cancer Cell.

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Adenocarcinoma

Adenocarcinoma is a cancer originating in glandular tissue. This tissue is also part of a larger tissue category known as epithelial. Epithelial tissue includes skin, glands and a variety of other tissue that lines the cavities and organs of the body. Epithelium is derived embryologically from ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm. To be classified as adenocarcinoma, the cells do not necessarily need to be part of a gland, as long as they have secretory properties. This form of carcinoma can occur in some higher mammals, including humans. Well differentiated adenocarcinomas tend to resemble the glandular tissue that they are derived from, while poorly differentiated may not. By staining the cells from a biopsy, a pathologist will determine whether the tumor is an adenocarcinoma or some other type of cancer. Adenocarcinomas can arise in many tissues of the body due to the ubiquitous nature of glands within the body. While each gland may not be secreting the same substance, as long as there is an exocrine function to the cell, it is considered glandular and its malignant form is therefore named adenocarcinoma. Endocrine gland tumors, such as a VIPoma, an insulinoma, a pheochromocytoma, etc, are typically not referred to as adenocarcinomas, but rather, are often called neuroendocrine tumors. If the glandular tissue is abnormal, but benign, it is said to be an adenoma. Benign adenomas typically do not invade other tissue and rarely metastasize. Malignant adenocarcinomas invade other tissues and often metastasize given enough time to do so.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA