GC: adj

S: NPR – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130754101 (last access: 16 September 2016); Mednet – http://www.medicinenet.com/image-collection/skin_cancer_picture/picture.htm (last access: 16 September 2016).

N: 1. 1560s, from cancer (Old English cancer “spreading sore, cancer”, from Latin cancer “a crab,” later, “malignant tumor,” from Greek karkinos, which, like the Modern English word, has three meanings: crab, tumor, and the zodiac constellation (late Old English)) + -ous (word-forming element making adjectives from nouns, meaning “having, full of, having to do with, doing, inclined to,” from Old French -ous, -eux, from Latin -osus).

2. Around 400 B.C., Hippocrates is said to have named masses of cancerous cells karkinos — Greek for crab.

3. A malignant and invasive growth or tumor, especially one originating in epithelium, tending to recur after excision and to metastasize to other sites.
Any disease characterized by such growths.

4. Relating to or pertaining to a malignant neoplasm, or being afflicted with such a process.

5. Of the nature of or pertaining to cancer.

6. Not to be confused with carcinogenic, cancerogenic or cancerigenic (having a cancer-causing action).

S: 1. Etymonline – http://goo.gl/vxaPwZ (last access: 16 September 2016). 2. NPR – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130754101 (last access: 16 September 2016). 3. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cancerous (last access: 16 September 2016). 4. GDT – http://www.granddictionnaire.com/ficheOqlf.aspx?Id_Fiche=17060422 (last access: 16 September 2016). 5 & 6. TERMIUM PLUS – http://goo.gl/yvMLxG; http://goo.gl/VmyzdQ (last access: 16 September 2016); FCB.

SYN: malignant

S: DTMe (last access: 16 September 2016)

CR: cancer, cancerology, carcinogenic, cyst, neoplasia, neoplastic, oncological, stem cell transplant, ulcerous.