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Tumor & Cancer – What is the Difference?

Tumor & Cancer – What is the Difference?

In this post we will clear our doubts regarding the term tumor and cancer. The general misconception what I have noticed is, when we hear the term tumor we think it is a cancer. But in fact tumor does not necessarily mean cancer.

Tumor aka neoplasm (neo = new and plasma = formation) is an abnormal mass of a tissue due to the abnormal growth. As a result, at that particular site lump appears which is called tumor. It is not necessary that all the tumors are cancerous. Let’s try and understand it.

Tumors are of two types:

1. Benign tumors:

Benign tumors are “non-progressive”. This means benign tumors limit their growth to a particular site wherever they are formed in the body. It is not going to spread form this site to any other site in the body. It cannot metastasize which means it cannot spread anywhere else in the body. Therefore, such benign tumors are noncancerous and they can be removed by surgery.

2. Malignant tumors:

Malignant tumors are cancerous because they have the ability to metastasize. They can spread from its primary site to any other part of the body.

Therefore, when a tumor is detected, it is very important to do biopsy to understand whether it is a benign tumor or malignant tumor.

Cancer is the term used to describe an uncontrolled growth of a cell. It is not necessary that all cancers are characterized by appearance of tumor. For example, blood cancer.

Cancer is a malignant condition. Based on what type of cancer or what stage it is detected, surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy is given.

Therefore, the term tumor and cancer cannot be used as synonyms.

I hope this post helped 🙂

To understand more in details, watch a video on this topic here.

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Vaccination and Immunization – Not the Same Thing!

Vaccination and Immunization – Not the Same Thing!

Most probably you guys would know these two terms but I have seen students thinking that they mean the same thing. Vaccination and immunization is not the same thing and let’s understand why.

  • Vaccination

    – From Latin word “vacca” meaning cow was given by Edward Jenner.

Vaccination literally means injection or administration of killed or attenuated Ag (vaccine) that produces the immunity in the body against that particular Ag.

Vaccination results in immunization because the vaccine would stimulate the immune response.

  • Immunization

    – is the process of inducing immunity or stimulating an immune response. It is defined as the process by which the body is prepared to fight against specific Ag or a disease. That means it gives immune resistance to body against specific disease.

So immunization happens after vaccination. But it is never 100% though; sometimes it is possible that the vaccination might not result in immunization due to some reason.

Immunization can be acquired by different means. And vaccination is one of the ways to acquire immunization.

Types of Immunization:

  • Active Immunization:

    is acquired by activating or stimulating the immune system of the body.

A.1 Natural Active Immunization: is acquired by following an infection or a disease.

A.2 Artificial Active Immunization: is acquired by injecting a vaccine.

  • Passive Immunization:

    is produced without challenging the immune system of the body. It is given by Abs or lymphocytes that have been produced by another individual’s immune system.

B.1 Natural Passive Immunization: is acquired before birth by transfer of Abs from mother to fetus through placenta and after birth through breast milk.

B.2 Artificial Passive Immunization: is acquired by injecting Abs in form of vaccine against a specific Ag.

Therefore, vaccination and immunization is not the same thing.

Vaccination results in Immunization OR Immunization is acquired by Vaccination.

I hope this post helps 🙂

To understand more in detail, watch a video on this topic here.