Categorizaton of Tumors

Tumors are often placed under one of two categories; malignant or benign. Malignant tumors are cancerous and benign tumors are non-cancerous.

ELSI breast tumor (http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/cancer-tumor.html)

Benign Tumors

• no anaplasia
• noninvasive
• encapsulated
• slow growing no metastases
• highly differentiated
• mitoses rare

ELSI brain tumor(http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/cancer-tumors.html)

Malignant Tumors

• anaplastic
• metastasizing
• nonencapsulated
• invasive
• tendency toward de-differentiation
• mitoses relatively common
• usually rapid growth

An animation of carcinogenesis.