This disease has several names, the most popular and common name is the “cancer”, it is also known as malignant tumor and this name differentiates it from the beginning tumors. The medical and scientific name of cancer is malignant neoplasm.
The definition of the malignant tumor or cancer is the abnormal behavior of specific cells in the body to show abnormal growth, invasion and metastasis. The abnormal growth means hyper active multiplication of the cell without any type of control and regardless of the cell age. The abnormal invasion means the proliferation of the cells without any respect to the tissue boundaries and the abnormal cells invade the adjacent tissues. The metastasis means the migration of cells through the blood or lymph to proliferate or multiply in other tissue in remote places of the body regardless of their origin.
Unlike the malignant tissue, the begnin tumor is self controlled as it proliferate till a specific limit then stops by itself. It has no invasive power or metastasis power as well. The malignant tumor is uncontrollable if it reaches a certain stage while it could be controlled through different methods if it is detected early enough.