Neoplasia: Nomenclature

Key points

• • A tumour's name usually shows its tissue of origin and its behaviour, so learning the naming rules lets you decode most tumour names.
• • Benign tumours generally end in the suffix -oma; for example a benign glandular tumour is an adenoma and a benign fat tumour is a lipoma.
• • Malignant tumours of epithelial tissue are called carcinomas, and those of connective (mesenchymal) tissue are called sarcomas.
• • So a malignant glandular tumour is an adenocarcinoma, while a malignant fat tumour is a liposarcoma.
• • Some names are misleading exceptions: lymphoma, melanoma and glioma sound benign because of the -oma ending but are in fact malignant.
• • A teratoma is a tumour containing tissues from at least two, and usually all three, germ layers and may be benign or malignant, while a hamartoma is a disorganised overgrowth of mature tissues native to the site rather than a true tumour.