# Carcinoma

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/carcinoma/  
OnCo record `carcinoma` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Cancer of the epithelium, the lining tissue that covers surfaces and forms glands. Around 85% of cancers are carcinomas, including breast, lung, colon, prostate and skin cancers.

## Summary

Epithelial cells line the skin, airways, gut, ducts and glands and are constantly renewed, so they divide often and are exposed to the outside world, which together explains why they generate most cancers. Carcinomas are subdivided by the kind of epithelium they came from, chiefly adenocarcinoma (glandular) and squamous cell carcinoma (flat surface lining), and the distinction affects both treatment and which drugs are licensed. The other broad classes are sarcomas (connective tissue), lymphomas and leukaemias (blood and immune cells), and tumours of the nervous system.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-09
- Also known as: carcinomas; epithelial cancer; epithelial cancers; epithelial; epithelium

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinoma
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinoma

## Connected records

- terms: [Adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/terms/adenocarcinoma/), [Histology](https://onco.cc/terms/histology/), [Keratinocyte cancer (and why 'non-melanoma skin cancer' is being retired)](https://onco.cc/terms/keratinocyte-cancer/), [Leukaemia (tissue type)](https://onco.cc/terms/leukaemia-type/), [Lymphoma (tissue type)](https://onco.cc/terms/lymphoma-type/), [Sarcoma (tissue type)](https://onco.cc/terms/sarcoma-type/), [Squamous cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/terms/squamous-cell-carcinoma/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/carcinoma.json