17) what is the difference between a benign and a malignant tumor

New to MyHealth? Manage Your Care From Anywhere. Activate Account. Create a New Account. Forgot Username or Password? Types of cancer. Genetic testing. What Is Cancer? What is the difference between benign and malignant cancer? What are "locally invasive cancer" and "metastatic cancer"? Cancer is malignant because it can be "locally invasive" and "metastatic": Locally invasive cancer —The tumor can invade the tissues surrounding it by sending out "fingers" of cancerous cells into the normal tissue.

Metastatic cancer —The tumor can send cells into other tissues in the body, which may be distant from the original tumor. What are primary tumors? Previous Section Next Section. Condition Spotlight. Sugar and Health - the Sweet, the Sour, and the Sticky!

Play Video Related Specialties View All. Our Physicians View All. Michael B. Christopher R. Kenneth B. Robert E. Joseph M. View All. This study was approved by the institutional review board of Taipei Veterans General Hospital and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

A total of 65 lacrimal sac tumors with histopathologic confirmation were included in our study, with 46 Among malignant tumors, 10 Patients with secondary malignancy might also present with nasal obstruction, epistaxis, tinnitus, or otalgia. The demographic features and outcome of benign and malignant lacrimal sac tumors are shown in Table 2. In the malignant group, surgical resection was performed in all 19 patients, with adjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy in 9 cases and radiotherapy in 8 cases.

In subgroup analysis for malignant tumors, the most common primary malignant lacrimal sac tumors were 3 cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma DLBCL , followed by 2 cases of squamous cell carcinoma SCC , 2 cases of lymphoepithelial carcinoma, 1 case of adenoid cystic carcinoma ACC , 1 case of leiomyosarcoma, and 1 case of malignant melanoma. The most common secondary malignant lacrimal sac tumors were SCC 4 cases , followed by ACC 2 cases , basal cell carcinoma 1 case , mucoepidermoid carcinoma 1 case , and poorly differentiated carcinoma 1 case.

Table 3 compared the demographic features and outcome between primary and secondary malignant lacrimal sac tumors. There was a significant female predominance among primary malignant tumors and male predominance among secondary tumors. The mean age at the time of diagnosis was relatively younger in patients with primary malignant lacrimal tumors as compared to that in secondary malignant lacrimal sac tumors Local recurrence rate, metastatic rate, and mortality rate were high and similar in both groups.

Our study revealed that the initial presenting symptoms such as epiphora and a lump or swelling in the lacrimal sac area are often similar in both benign and malignant lacrimal sac lesions.

However, tumor mass extending above the medial canthal tendon remained an important red flag sign suggestive of malignant lacrimal sac tumors. Besides, imaging features such as bone erosion or infiltrative lesions would also indicate the possibility of malignancy. They often infiltrated from paranasal sinus or nasal cavity to lacrimal sac and showed a poor outcome.

Because malignant lacrimal sac tumors are rare, the number of subjects recruited in the current study is limited. In the present study, we found that in patients with primary malignant lacrimal sac tumors, the mean age at the time of diagnosis was Previous studies also reported that the malignant lacrimal sac tumors often occurred in the fifth decade [ 7 — 10 ]. No significant gender difference between benign and malignant lacrimal tumors was found in the current study.

Bi et al. In subgroup analysis for malignant lacrimal sac tumors, we found female predominance in the primary malignant group and male predominance in the secondary malignant group. Since most of the secondary lacrimal sac tumors originated from adjacent structures, such as paranasal sinuses and nasal cavity, we hypothesized that the reason for this gender predilection may attribute to that men are traditionally more likely to develop nasopharyngeal cancer or nasal tumors than women [ 12 ].

Similar initial symptoms mimicking benign lesions and less noticeable tumor location could cause delayed diagnosis of malignant lacrimal sac tumors [ 13 ]. Moreover, because of its location between paranasal sinus and the orbit, management of lacrimal sac tumors is quite challengeable and often requires adjuvant therapy [ 4 , 14 — 18 ].

Regarding the prognosis, El-sawy et al. Comprehensive history taking including sinonasal symptoms, physical examinations, and imaging studies can be helpful in early diagnosis and the management of malignant lacrimal sac tumors to reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by malignant lacrimal sac tumors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article of the Year Award: Outstanding research contributions of , as selected by our Chief Editors. Benign tumors can form anywhere. If you discover a lump or mass in your body that can be felt from the outside, you might immediately assume it is cancerous. For instance, women who find lumps in their breasts during self-examinations are often alarmed. However, most breast growths are benign. In fact, many growths throughout the body are benign. Benign growths are extremely common, with 9 out of 10 women showing benign breast tissue changes.

Benign bone tumors, similarly, have a higher prevalence than malignant bone tumors. Read more: What is a hamartoma? The exact cause of a benign tumor is often unknown. It develops when cells in the body divide and grow at an excessive rate. Typically, the body is able to balance cell growth and division. When old or damaged cells die, they are automatically replaced with new, healthy cells. In the case of tumors, dead cells remain and form a growth known as a tumor. Cancer cells grow in the same manner.

However, unlike the cells in benign tumors, cancerous cells can invade nearby tissue and spread to other parts of the body. Benign tumors are classified by where they grow. Lipomas , for example, grow from fat cells, while myomas grow from muscle. Different types of benign tumors are included below:. In many cases, benign tumors will be monitored carefully. Noncancerous moles or colon polyps, for example, can turn into cancer at a later time.