malignancy
The term malignancy ( Latin malignitas , “malignancy”, “resentment”) is used in medicine to denote a disease or a course of disease that has a progressively destructive effect and can possibly also lead to the death of the patient .
Tumor medicine
The term is often used in relation to tumor diseases . The term "tumor" ( Latin for "swelling" ) refers to a lump that can be either malignant (malignant) or benign (benign). Criteria of malignancy, similarly postulated by Rudolf Virchow since the 1850s, are:
- Formation of daughter tumors ( metastases )
- locally infiltrating, destructive (destructive) growth
- extensive Ent differentiation , ie the tumor cells no longer resemble the original tissue from which they originate.
A malignant tumor is colloquially referred to as " cancer ". This term is often avoided by doctors because it has very negative associations and includes diseases that have little in common and a very different prognosis.
Other uses in medicine
In addition, the term is also used in relation to epileptic seizures and metabolic disorders (e.g. malignant obesity , malignant hyperthermia ); It also occurs in psychiatry as a malignant neuroleptic syndrome , malignant catatonia, etc. There is also malignant aphthosis and malignant hypertension . The semi-malignancy (lat. Semi , half ') describes the limited malignancy of a disease or the course of a disease. Here the term does not refer to a tumor disease, but to a disease that is particularly difficult or difficult to treat.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hanna K. Probst, Axel W. Bauer : pioneer and companion of new surgical therapy concepts. Tumor pathology in gynecology during the second half of the 19th century. In: Specialized prose research - Crossing borders. Volume 10, 2014, pp. 89–110, here: pp. 90 f.
