What Is Cancer?
Cancer
begins in cells, the building blocks
that make up tissues.
Tissues make up the organs of your body. Normally, cells
grow and divide to form new cells as your body needs them. When cells
grow old, they die, and new cells take their place.
Sometimes this orderly process goes wrong. New cells form when the body does
not need them, and old cells do not die when they should. These extra cells can
form a mass of tissue called a growth or
tumor.
Growths on the larynx also may be called
nodules or
polyps. Not all growths are cancer.
Growths can be benign
or malignant:
Cancer of the larynx also may be called
laryngeal cancer. It can develop
in any part of the larynx. Most cancers of the larynx begin in the glottis.
The inner walls of the larynx are lined with cells called
squamous cells.
Almost all laryngeal cancers begin in these cells. These cancers are called
squamous cell carcinomas.
If cancer of the larynx spreads (metastasizes), the cancer cells often
spread to nearby lymph nodes in
the neck. The cancer cells can also spread to the back of the tongue, other
parts of the throat and neck, the lungs, and other parts of the body. When this
happens, the new tumor has the same kind of abnormal cells as the primary tumor
in the larynx. For example, if cancer of the larynx spreads to the lungs, the
cancer cells in the lungs are actually laryngeal cancer cells. The disease is
called metastatic cancer of the larynx, not lung cancer. It is treated as
cancer of the larynx, not lung cancer. Doctors sometimes call the new tumor
“distant” disease.
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