Is lung tumor lung cancer?

Patient Ms. Zhang was diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer by the hospital. She had a space-occupying tumor in the lungs and had symptoms of lung space-occupying tumors and lymph nodes. Is a lung tumor lung cancer?

The meaning of lung tumor is quite broad. Lung tumor is not necessarily lung cancer, but among lung tumors, lung cancer accounts for a very high percentage and should be highly vigilant. Lung cancer only refers to malignant tumors formed by epithelial cells in the alveoli and bronchi at all levels. Tumors of other lung tissues are not lung cancer. In other words, lung cancer is a type of lung tumor, and lung tumors include lung cancer, but they are not necessarily lung cancer.

Benign lung tumors are tumors in which the cells that make up the tumor are similar to normal cells, but their tissue structure is different from that of normal tissues. They do not have the functions of normal tissues, and the cells proliferate abnormally and accumulate into masses, forming tumor-like deformities. However, these cells proliferate slowly, do not spread throughout the body, and do not metastasize. The more common benign lung tumors are hamartomas. From the name of the tumor, we can know that it is caused by disordered growth of tissue structure. The hamartoma of different patients may be composed of different proportions of cartilage, glands, smooth muscles, blood vessels, fat, and fibrous tissue. Sometimes only a small piece of tissue is taken for examination, and it can be compared with other benign tumors, such as soft tissue.

In addition to lung cancer, lung malignancies include malignant lymphoma, lung carcinoma (squamous cell carcinoma and fibrosarcoma-like components), pulmonary blastoma, lung sarcoma (including leiomyosarcoma, fibrosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, liposarcoma, angiosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, etc.), malignant papillomatosis, malignant mesothelial carcinoma, malignant neurogenic tumors, malignant teratomas and malignant hamartomas, etc.