What is the term used to describe the property of malignant tumours where cells from the primary tumour spread to distant sites and form new tumours?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Metastasis
Tumours are of two kinds. Benign tumours stay where they start and cause little damage. Malignant tumours grow fast and invade the tissue around them, and their cells can also leave the first tumour and travel. The name of this property is metastasis. It makes malignant tumours the most dangerous kind, because the cancer then appears in many parts of the body.
NCERT Extract:
Cancer – “… The malignant tumors, on the other hand are a mass of proliferating cells called neoplastic or tumor cells. These cells grow very rapidly, invading and damaging the surrounding normal tissues. As these cells actively divide and grow they also starve the normal cells by competing for vital nutrients. Cells sloughed from such tumors reach distant sites through blood, and wherever they get lodged in the body, they start a new tumor there. This property called metastasis is the most feared property of malignant tumors.”