Pathology and Pathological Disorders

Cancer Pathology

Metastasis, or metastatic disease, is the spread of cancer or other disease from one organ or part to another not directly connected with it. An oncovirus is a virus that can cause cancer. This term originated from studies of acutely transforming retroviruses in the 1950–60s, often called oncornaviruses to denote their RNA virus origin. Carcinogenesis or oncogenesis or tumorigenesis is the actual formation of cancer, whereby normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. Mutagenesis is a process by which the genetic information of an organism is changed in a stable manner, resulting in a mutation. It may occur spontaneously in nature, or as a result of exposure to mutagens. Apoptosis is a form of physiological cell death mediated by caspases, a unique family of intracellular cysteine proteases.