The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cancer \Can"cer\, n. [L. cancer, cancri, crab, ulcer, a sign of the zodiac; akin to Gr. karki`nos, Skr. karka[.t]a crab, and prob. Skr. karkara hard, the crab being named from its hard shell. Cf. Canner, Chancre.]
(Zo["o]l.) A genus of decapod Crustacea, including some of the most common shore crabs of Europe and North America, as the rock crab, Jonah crab, etc. See Crab.
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(Astron.)
The fourth of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The first point is the northern limit of the sun's course in summer; hence, the sign of the summer solstice. See Tropic.
A northern constellation between Gemini and Leo.
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(Med.) Formerly, any malignant growth, esp. one attended with great pain and ulceration, with cachexia and progressive emaciation. It was so called, perhaps, from the great veins which surround it, compared by the ancients to the claws of a crab. The term is now restricted to such a growth made up of aggregations of epithelial cells, either without support or embedded in the meshes of a trabecular framework.
Note: Four kinds of cancers are recognized: (1) Epithelial cancer, or Epithelioma, in which there is no trabecular framework. See Epithelioma. (2) Scirrhous cancer, or Hard cancer, in which the framework predominates, and the tumor is of hard consistence and slow growth. (3) Encephaloid cancer, Medullary cancer, or Soft cancer, in which the cellular element predominates, and the tumor is soft, grows rapidy, and often ulcerates. (4) Colloid cancer, in which the cancerous structure becomes gelatinous. The last three varieties are also called carcinoma.
Cancer cells, cells once believed to be peculiar to cancers, but now know to be epithelial cells differing in no respect from those found elsewhere in the body, and distinguished only by peculiarity of location and grouping.
Cancer root (Bot.), the name of several low plants, mostly parasitic on roots, as the beech drops, the squawroot, etc.
Tropic of Cancer. See Tropic.
Usage examples of "cancer cells".
But cancer cells are not responsive to this chemical communication.
The viruses invade cancer cells, turning them into viral reproduction factories, eventually either killing the host cell or making it visible to imaging machines.
But when they dripped the telomerase inhibitor into me through an IV, I knew the idea was to stop the cancer cells rebuilding the bits at the end of their chromosomes.
And now theyre doing something with cancer cells inside their bodies?
When I went to the bathroom I endured the acid sting in my groin by telling myself I was peeing out dead cancer cells.
The endothelial cells obligingly build blood vessel bridges to supply the cancer cells with blood.
This had always been a weighty man, but now he was a living lunch for the advancing cancer cells .
The body that could not conceive a baby created its own grotesque parody of life, cancer cells that multiplied endlessly.
Although normal human cells die after a limited number of divisions, the same is not true of cancer cells.
Not surprisingly, in view of what we have learned so far, cancer cells produce telomerase.
On the one hand, if we could prevent the production of telomerase we would inhibit the spread of cancer cells, while not affecting normal cells which already lack telomerase.
With medication delivered within minutes or seconds, infections were wiped out before they could take hold, tiny clusters of cancer cells destroyed before they could grow or spread.