🔶 Benign Tumor / Benign / Benign Cancer : a non-cancerous tumor. Benign tumors may grow large but do not spread into, or invade, nearby tissues or other parts of the body.
🔶 Cancer: A term for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control. Cancer cells can invade nearby tissues and can spread through the bloodstream and lymphatic system to other parts of the body. You can only be certain a mass or tumor is cancer, by sending a sample of it to pathology.
🔶 Cancer Grade / Grade / Grade 1 = Low Grade / Grade 2 = Moderate Grade / Grade 3 = High Grade : there are three cancer grades. Grading is about how the cancer cells look under a microscope compared with normal cells. The more irregular the cells, the higher the grade. The higher the grade, the more aggressive the cancer is. The grade also tells how quickly the tumor is likely to grow and spread. The higher the grade usually the faster the tumor will grow and spread, and the more likely that the cancer will come back (recurrence) and progress (into a higher stage or metastasize forming other cancers in the body). Grading systems are different for each type of cancer.
🔶 Cancer Stage / Stage / Staging : The stage is determined by the cancer growth in the bladder wall and how far it has spread to nearby tissues and other organs, such as the lungs, the liver, or the bones. Staging is performing exams and tests to learn the extent of the cancer within the body, especially whether the disease has spread from the original site to other parts of the body.
🔶 Carcinogen: Any substance that causes cancer.
🔶 Carcinoma : Cancer that forms in the skin or lining of internal organs. In bladder cancer the lining of the bladder is called the urothelium.
🔶 Clean Margins: this means that when a tumor is taken out, at the outer edge of the tissue removed, there are no cancer cells found. If you have clean margins that will mean that that got it all!
🔶 Gene / DNA: Genes are the functional and physical unit of heredity passed from parent to offspring. Genes are pieces of DNA, and most genes contain the information for making a specific protein.
🔶 Malignant Tumor: a cancerous tumor. Malignant tumors can spread into, or invade, nearby tissues. They can also spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems. Also called neoplasm.
🔶 Metastasize / Mets / Metastasis / Metastases / Secondary Tumor / Primary Tumor: Metastasize means to spread form one part of the body to another. When cancer cells metastasize they form what is called a secondary tumor. The cells in the metastatic tumor are like those in the original (primary) tumor. Metastasis is the spread of cancer from one part of the body to another. The plural is metastases. Often with bladder cancer, if metastases occur, it will be in the liver, lungs, and bones.
🔶 Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer / Invasive Bladder Cancer / Infiltrating Cancer / Invasive Cancer: is when the cancer has grown into deeper layers of the bladder wall (muscle), and beyond, goring into surrounding and healthy tissues. These are more likely to spread to other organs and are harder to treat. This includes stage 2, 3, and 4, with being stage 4 extending past the bladder wall. These tumors have characteristically bad biological behavior and are capable of spreading to other parts of the body without much warning. Accordingly, physicians are constantly on the lookout for evidence of disease spread in patients with invasive bladder carcinomas (cancers in the endothelial lining of the bladder). Invasive cancers are less common than superficial ones, but they unfortunately spread to other parts of the body in about half of the patients who have this invasive disease.
🔶 Non-Invasive Bladder Cancer / Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer (NMIBC)/ Transitional Cell Carcinoma (TCC) / Urothelial (yer-o-THEE-ul) Carcinoma: I know, I know... that is whole lot of names! I wish they could simplify things. But when you see one of these named, it really means all of them. This is the cancer found in the tissue that lines the inner surface of the bladder called the urothelium.The bladder muscle is not involved, it has not grown into the muscle layer. That means it is stage 0 or stage 1. This is what about 90 percent of all bladder cancers are.
🔶 p53 Gene / p53 Tumor Suppressor Gene : This is a gene that can help prevent the development of tumors. Because p53 is essential for regulating DNA repair and cell division, it has been nicknamed the "guardian of the genome." In bladder cancer, alterations or this gene are common, occurring in about 50% of transitional cell carcinoma, also called non-invasive/ non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) or urothelial carcinoma. This is the most common form of bladder cancer (about 90%).
🔶 Pathology Report / Histology Report / Biopsy Report / Pathology / Pathologist / Histology / Histopathology / Patho / Histo:
pathology is the study of disease, and histology is the study of
microscopic structure of tissues. Histopathology is the study of
diseased cells and tissues using a microscope. It is the bridge between
science and
medicine. A pathologist is a board certified physician who studies body
fluids and tissues, identifying diseases by studying cells and tissues under a microscope. After
you get a biopsy (a sample of tissue or tumor) or a tumor
is resected (taken out), then that tissue or tumor is sent to
pathology. The pathologist will look at it under a microscope and tell
you if the growth is benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). If
it is cancer the pathology report/histology report/biopsy report will
tell you the type of cancer, the
stage of the cancer, and the grade of the cancer. The pathology report
will also tell you that the surgeon had clean margins in the tissue
sample. You will often see people just use the word patho or histo when
describing these results. Example: "The patho showed NED" NED is no
evidence of disease by the way. 😊
🔶 Pre-Cancerous : A group of cells, tissue, mass, or tumor that may turn cancerous if left in place or untreated.
🔶 Primary Tumor: The original tumor or cancer in your bladder.
🔶 Prognosis: What your chance of recovery is.
🔶 Recurrent / Recurrence / Recur: To occur again. Recurrence is the return of cancer, at the same site as the original (primary) tumor in another location, after the tumor had disappeared. Recurrent UTI's mean you have a lot of urinary tract infections. More than what might be counted as "normal." Some studies have said that possible recurrent UTI's might be attributed to bladder cancer.
🔶 Refractory: In medicine, describes a disease or condition that does not respond to treatment.
🔶 Remission / Partial Remission / Complete Remission / NED / No Evidence of Disease:
remission is that signs and symptoms of your cancer are reduced or
gone. Remission can be partial or complete. In partial remission, some,
but not all signs and symptoms of cancer have disappeared. This could
mean the tumor is smaller. In complete remission, all signs and symptoms
of cancer have disappeared, although cancer still may be in the body.
NED stands for no evidence of disease. It means the patient is in complete remission.
🔶 Risk Factor: A habit, trait, condition, or genetic alteration that increases a person’s chance of developing a disease.
🔶 Secondary Tumor: A term used to describe cancer that has spread (metastasized) from the place where it first started to another part of the body. Secondary tumors are the same type of cancer as the original (primary) cancer.
🔶 Squamous Cell Carcinoma / Adenocarcinoma / Small Cell Carcinoma/ Sarcoma:
these are all very rare types of bladder cancers. Squamous cell
carcinomas originates from flat-shaped squamous cells found in the
tissue lining of the bladder. Adenocarcinomas originate from
mucus-secreting gland cells lining the bladder. Small cell carcinoma
occurs in less than 1% of all bladder cancers and is very aggressive and
doesn't respond well to treatment, often metastasizing or spreading to
other body parts. It come from nerve-like neuroendocrine cells in the
bladder. Sarcomas come from the bladder’s muscle cells.
🔶 Ta / Stage Ta / Ta0 / Superficial Bladder Cancer: This tells us how the tumor looks and that it is stage 0 (caught very early). It's a non-invasive (not in the muscle) papillary (it sticks out and looks like cauliflower or coral) carcinoma. This type of cancer has grown toward the hollow center of the bladder but has not grown into the connective tissue or muscle of the bladder wall. It is only in the urothelium layer (part that touches the urine) of the bladder. It has not spread to nearby lymph nodes or distant sites. This can easily be removed by a TURBT (a surgery where they go in through your urethra, and take out the tumor). The majority of bladder cancers are superficial, though these progress in only a minority of patients, they do usually recur.
🔶 Tis/ CIS/ Stage Tis / Tis / Carcinoma in Situ / Superficial Bladder Cancer: this tells us how the tumor looks and that it is stage 0 (caught very early). This tumor is flat. It's a non-invasive (not in the muscle) flat carcinoma. These cells are only in the urothelium layer (part that touches the urine) of the bladder. These types of tumors have a aggressive being higher grade, increasing the risk of recurrence (coming back) and progression (getting bigger and growing outside the bladder and spreading to other body parts). The majority of bladder cancers are superficial, though these progress in only a minority of patients, they do usually recur.
🔶 Tumor/ T / Mass / Neoplasm / Neoplasia : an abnormal mass of tissue that forms when cells grown and divide more than they should or do not die when they should. Tumors may be benign (not cancer) or malignant (cancer)
🔶 Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma / UTUC: While the majority of bladder cancers (approximately 90-95%) arise in the bladder, the urothelial cells that line the bladder are found in other locations in the urinary system. Sometimes these urothelial cancers can occur in the lining of the kidney or in the ureter that connects the kidney to the bladder. This is known as upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) correspond to a subset of urothelial cancers that arise in the urothelial cells in the lining of the kidney (called the renal pelvis) or the ureter (the long, thin tube that connects that kidney to the bladder).
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