cancers

Non-small-cell lung cancer is the proving ground for precision medicine: a dozen targetable mutations each with a matched pill, immunotherapy for the rest, and ADCs and bispecifics arriving now. Because most cases are still found late, low-dose CT screening is the other half of the story.

HR-positive breast cancer is the most common breast cancer, driven by oestrogen. It was treated for years with hormone-blocking pills, now joined by CDK4/6 inhibitors, PI3K-pathway drugs, degraders, and ADCs.

The cancer where screening works best and where immunotherapy can make some tumours disappear entirely, yet most metastatic disease still depends on chemotherapy.

Prostate cancer is the home of theranostics: PSMA PET finds it, PSMA radioligands treat it. Hormonal therapy remains the foundation, with PARP and AKT inhibitors added by genotype.

Almost every pancreatic tumour carries a KRAS mutation, and for the first time drugs against it work: daraxonrasib nearly doubled survival in previously treated disease in 2026. Pancreatic cancer has been the hardest common cancer to treat once advanced; that is what is starting to change.

Usually found late. PARP inhibitors transformed maintenance therapy, and ADCs against folate receptor and CDH6 are arriving for platinum-resistant disease.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is an aggressive but curable lymphoma. CAR-T cures about 40% of relapsed patients, and off-the-shelf bispecifics are now approved.

A cancer with three new targets in five years: Claudin 18.2, FGFR2b, and HER2 with new ADCs, plus immunotherapy in first line.

Bladder cancer went from 40 years of cisplatin to an ADC-immunotherapy combination that nearly doubled survival, and in 2026 the first blood-test-guided drug approval.

The cancer that proved immunotherapy works: half of advanced patients now live 10 years. Also the first with an approved TIL therapy, an oncolytic virus, and a positive phase 3 personalised vaccine.

Multiple myeloma is a plasma-cell cancer with more new drug classes than any other: proteasome inhibitors, IMiDs, CD38 antibodies, BCMA CAR-T, bispecifics, and an ADC.

A breast cancer that lacks the three receptors (oestrogen, progesterone, HER2) that other breast cancers can be treated through. It was the hardest subtype for decades; since 2020 immunotherapy and ADCs have changed that.

Acute myeloid leukaemia is an aggressive blood cancer where, after 40 years of the same chemotherapy, a wave of targeted drugs (FLT3, IDH, BCL-2, menin) arrived.

Cancers of the mouth and throat, increasingly caused by HPV. Immunotherapy is first line for advanced disease and now used before surgery.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is the childhood cancer success story, and was the first disease treated with CAR-T and with a T-cell engager.

A fast-growing lung cancer that responds to chemotherapy then relapses quickly. After 30 years without progress, T-cell engagers and ADCs are finally moving the needle.

HER2-positive breast cancer was once the most aggressive subtype and is now one of the most treatable, thanks to trastuzumab and, more recently, Enhertu.

Sarcomas are dozens of rare cancers of bone and connective tissue. GIST was the first solid tumour cured-in-practice by a targeted pill; synovial sarcoma got the first TCR-T therapy.

Metastatic cancer means the original cancer has spread to other parts of the body, most often the bones, liver, lungs or brain. It keeps the name of where it started, is treated with therapies that reach the whole body, and can increasingly be controlled for years; with limited spread it is sometimes treated with the aim of cure.

A slow leukaemia that no longer needs chemotherapy: BTK inhibitors and venetoclax control it for years, often in fixed-duration courses.

Kidney cancer is where anti-angiogenic drugs and immunotherapy came together, and where a Nobel-winning oxygen-sensing pathway yielded a drug, belzutifan.

Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the most curable cancers, where the goal is now to cure with less toxicity, using brentuximab and, from 2026, first-line nivolumab.

Oesophageal cancer is really two diseases sharing one organ: squamous cell carcinoma, which dominates in Asia, and adenocarcinoma, which dominates in the West and is treated like gastric cancer. Immunotherapy is now standard, and the bispecific ADC iza-bren posted a positive phase 3 in the squamous type in 2026.

A cancer that could be eliminated by HPV vaccination and screening. For those who develop it, immunotherapy and a tissue-factor ADC have improved survival.

The gynaecological cancer where immunotherapy has had the biggest impact, guided by molecular classification.

Liver cancer almost always grows in a liver already damaged by hepatitis, alcohol or fatty liver disease. It is one of the most preventable cancers, and since 2020 immunotherapy combinations have roughly doubled how long people with advanced disease live.

Follicular lymphoma is the most common slow-growing lymphoma, defined in about 85% of cases by a BCL2 translocation. Most people live with it for decades, treated only when it causes problems; it can be controlled repeatedly with anti-CD20 antibodies, chemotherapy, bispecifics or CAR-T but rarely cured, and a small share transform into an aggressive lymphoma each year.

Cholangiocarcinoma is cancer of the bile ducts or gallbladder. It is rare and often found late, but it turned out to carry more targetable mutations than almost any other gastrointestinal cancer, and immunotherapy now adds to chemotherapy from the first treatment.

Gliomas are now diagnosed by molecular class, and three classes got their first targeted drugs in 2024-25 (vorasidenib for IDH-mutant glioma, tovorafenib for BRAF-altered paediatric glioma, dordaviprone for H3 K27M). Glioblastoma itself is the hardest to treat and has kept the same standard since 2005; CAR-T delivered into the brain and focused-ultrasound drug delivery are the live directions.

A family of usually slow-growing tumours that start in hormone-producing cells of the gut, pancreas and lungs. They pioneered the idea of using the same molecule to see a tumour on a scan and then to treat it with radiation.

An uncommon B-cell lymphoma driven by cyclin D1 that used to behave badly in almost everyone. BTK inhibitors, CAR-T and now BCL2 drugs have changed it from chemotherapy-plus-transplant to targeted combinations.

Bone-marrow disorders where blood cells are made badly and too few reach the blood; a third progress to acute leukaemia. Treatment ranges from transfusions and growth factors to hypomethylating drugs and, for the fit, transplant.

Peripheral T-cell lymphomas are lymphomas of T cells rather than B cells. They are rarer, more varied and, apart from a few subtypes, harder to treat than B-cell lymphomas; several new drugs help only defined subtypes.

Myeloproliferative neoplasms are slow-growing blood cancers in which the marrow overproduces red cells (polycythaemia vera), platelets (essential thrombocythaemia) or scar tissue (myelofibrosis). Almost all carry a mutation in JAK2, CALR or MPL; treatment aims to prevent clots and control symptoms, and only transplant cures myelofibrosis.

Thyroid cancer is usually curable with surgery and radioactive iodine, the original theranostic. Rare aggressive forms respond to RET and BRAF inhibitors.

Chronic myeloid leukaemia is a blood cancer driven by a single fused gene, BCR-ABL1, and the model for oncogene-targeted treatment: imatinib in 2001 and the tyrosine kinase inhibitors that followed turned it into a condition most people live with long-term. About half of patients with a sustained deep molecular response can now stop treatment altogether.

Osteosarcoma is the most common bone cancer, mostly in teenagers. Chemotherapy plus surgery cures about two-thirds when it has not spread; because no new drug has beaten that chemotherapy in a large trial in 30 years, the next gains are being sought in cellular therapy against GD2, HER2 and B7-H3.

Salivary gland cancers are a family of over 20 rare cancers, each with its own behaviour and often its own gene fusion. Surgery and radiation treat most; drug therapy is now chosen by the specific subtype, from anti-HER2 or anti-androgen drugs to NTRK inhibitors.

A cancer at the back of the nose caused largely by the Epstein-Barr virus and common in southern China and Southeast Asia. Radiation cures most early cases; adding chemotherapy and, recently, PD-1 immunotherapy has improved outcomes in advanced disease, and a blood test for viral DNA can detect it early.

People living with HIV have a raised risk of aggressive lymphomas, driven by immune suppression and viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus. The transformation of the last two decades is that, with antiretroviral therapy continued through treatment, these lymphomas are treated with the same full-dose chemotherapy and antibody regimens as in anyone else, with similar chances of cure.

Ewing sarcoma is a bone and soft-tissue cancer of teenagers driven by a single fusion gene, EWSR1-FLI1. Intensive chemotherapy with surgery or radiation cures most localised cases; disease that has spread at diagnosis, and relapse, remain hard to treat, and no drug against the fusion protein itself has yet succeeded.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is not one disease but a family of about sixty cancers of B cells, T cells or NK cells, from slow-growing follicular lymphoma to aggressive diffuse large B-cell and Burkitt lymphomas. This page is the map; each subtype has its own page with its own treatment.

Thymoma and thymic carcinoma are rare tumours of the thymus gland in the chest. Thymomas grow slowly, often cause autoimmune diseases such as myasthenia gravis, and are usually cured by surgery; thymic carcinomas behave like other aggressive cancers and have few effective drugs.

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant childhood brain tumour, arising in the cerebellum. Surgery, radiation to the whole brain and spine, and chemotherapy cure about 70%, at a heavy cost to thinking and growth; treatment is now being tailored to four molecular subgroups so that the low-risk children get less.

Uterine sarcomas are rare cancers of the muscle and supporting tissue of the womb, distinct from the far commoner endometrial cancer. Removing the uterus intact is the main treatment and is followed by observation for stage I disease; low-grade stromal sarcomas respond to hormone-blocking pills, while advanced leiomyosarcoma is treated with doxorubicin and trabectedin.

Kaposi sarcoma is a blood-vessel cancer caused by the herpesvirus HHV-8, made famous by the AIDS epidemic. In people with HIV, antiretroviral therapy alone often shrinks it; liposomal doxorubicin or paclitaxel treat advanced disease, and it remains among the commonest cancers in sub-Saharan Africa, where paclitaxel is often unaffordable.

Men get breast cancer too, usually a hormone-sensitive kind found as a lump near the nipple. It is treated much as in women, with surgery, radiotherapy and tamoxifen, and inherited BRCA2 mutations are found often enough that every man diagnosed is offered genetic testing. The main fix under way is including men in trials so their care stops being borrowed from women.

An asbestos-caused cancer of the lung lining. Immunotherapy doublets replaced chemotherapy in 2020, and mesothelin CAR-T is under study.

Neuroblastoma is a childhood nerve-cell cancer where anti-GD2 antibodies and, recently, GD2 CAR-T have improved survival in high-risk disease.

Adenocarcinoma of the lower oesophagus and junction grows out of Barrett's oesophagus, the change in the lining caused by long-standing acid reflux. Chemotherapy or chemoradiation before surgery is standard, and HER2, PD-L1 and claudin 18.2 now guide drugs for advanced disease as they do in stomach cancer.

A childhood soft-tissue cancer of muscle-like cells found anywhere from the eye socket to the bladder. Most children are cured with chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, and a fusion gene (PAX-FOXO1) now decides how intensively to treat.

GIST is a sarcoma of the gut wall driven almost always by a KIT or PDGFRA mutation. It was the proof that a pill can control a solid tumour: imatinib turned a median survival of about a year into one of eight years or more, and the mutation now dictates which drug to use.

Polycythaemia vera is a slow blood cancer in which a single faulty gene, JAK2, makes the bone marrow produce too many red cells. Thick blood causes clots, so treatment thins it (blood removal, aspirin) and, for higher-risk patients, calms the marrow with hydroxyurea, interferon or ruxolitinib; a hepcidin mimic, rusfertide, now controls red cell counts without regular blood removal.

Testicular germ cell tumours are the most curable adult solid cancer: cisplatin-based chemotherapy cures the large majority even when the disease has spread to distant sites. Today's research is about giving less treatment to the majority who are cured, rescuing the minority who relapse, and limiting lifelong survivorship harms.

A slow lymphoma that makes an abnormal IgM antibody, causing thick blood, anaemia and nerve damage. Nearly all cases share one mutation (MYD88 L265P), and BTK inhibitors control it for years.

Ampullary cancer starts where the bile and pancreatic ducts empty into the small bowel. Because it blocks bile flow early it is often caught while still removable, and the Whipple operation cures a good share of patients. Tumours come in two flavours, intestinal-like and pancreas-like, and chemotherapy is increasingly chosen by which one the pathologist sees.

An HPV-caused cancer of the anal canal that is usually cured without surgery by combined chemotherapy and radiation. Prevention (HPV vaccination, screening of high-risk groups) and immunotherapy for advanced disease are the new fronts.

Chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia and its relatives are bone-marrow cancers that behave partly like myelodysplasia (poorly made blood cells) and partly like a proliferative disease (an excess of monocytes or platelets). Hypomethylating agents produce responses in a minority and stabilise counts in more, transplant can cure the fit, and RAS-pathway and JAK inhibitors are in trials.

Clear cell is the common kidney cancer, driven by loss of the VHL gene that leaves the tumour behaving as if starved of oxygen and flooding itself with blood vessels. That biology explains why anti-angiogenic drugs, immunotherapy and the HIF-2 alpha blocker belzutifan all work.

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma is a sun-related skin cancer with over a million US cases a year, almost all cured by removing them. The 2 to 5% that grow deep or spread respond to PD-1 immunotherapy (cemiplimab, pembrolizumab), which is now also given after surgery in high-risk cases; transplant recipients cannot safely receive it.

Histiocytoses are diseases in which immune scavenger cells build up in bone, heart, brain, kidneys and skin. They used to be treated as inflammatory conditions with steroids and interferon. The discovery that most carry mutations in the same growth pathway as melanoma turned them into targetable cancers: BRAF and MEK inhibitor pills now produce responses in nearly every treated patient.

Gallbladder cancer is a cancer of the bile-storing sac under the liver, most often found by chance when the gallbladder is removed for stones. Caught early, a second operation to clear the liver bed and nodes can cure it; for advanced disease, chemotherapy now comes with an immunotherapy partner, and HER2-directed antibodies help the subset whose tumours over-express HER2.

Primary CNS lymphoma is a lymphoma confined to the brain, eyes and spinal fluid. Unlike most brain tumours it is chemo-sensitive: high-dose methotrexate-based treatment cures a substantial minority, and consolidation with a stem-cell transplant has replaced whole-brain radiation for the fit.

Skin cancer covers the very common and rarely dangerous basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, the less common but more serious melanoma, and rarer tumours such as Merkel cell carcinoma and Kaposi sarcoma. Almost all of it is caused by ultraviolet light and most of it is found and cured by simple surgery.

An uncommon cancer of the external genitalia with two distinct causes: HPV infection in younger women and chronic skin inflammation in older women. Surgery is the mainstay, and sentinel-node biopsy has made it far less mutilating.

Biliary tract cancers arise in the bile ducts inside or outside the liver, the gallbladder or the ampulla where the duct meets the bowel. They share a poor outlook and the same first-line chemotherapy with immunotherapy, but differ in causes and in the targetable mutations they carry. Each has its own page.

Cancer in children is rare and different from adult cancer: the common types are leukaemias, brain tumours, lymphomas and embryonal tumours such as neuroblastoma and Wilms tumour, most are curable in well-resourced health systems, and the great challenge is bringing the same cures to the majority of children who live where they are not available.

Mycosis fungoides is a lymphoma that lives in the skin, looking like eczema or psoriasis for years before it is diagnosed. It is treated with creams, light and skin-directed radiotherapy for as long as possible, then with antibodies such as mogamulizumab and brentuximab vedotin when it spreads to the blood or lymph nodes.

Cancers that grow from placental tissue after a pregnancy. They make a hormone (hCG) that acts as a perfect blood test, and they were the first solid cancer ever cured by chemotherapy. Immunotherapy now rescues the few that resist drugs.

Hairy cell leukaemia is a rare, slow B-cell leukaemia with a single defining mutation (BRAF V600E) that is unusually curable: one week of a purine analogue puts most people into remission for years, and BRAF drugs rescue those who relapse.

High-grade serous cancer is the common, aggressive form of ovarian cancer, now known to start in the fallopian tube. It is treated with surgery and platinum chemotherapy, and maintenance PARP inhibitors have changed its course for the half of patients whose tumours cannot repair DNA properly.

IMT is a rare tumour of spindle cells mixed with inflammatory cells, most often in the lung or abdomen of children and young adults. Surgery cures most, and about half carry an ALK gene fusion, so the ALK-blocking pill crizotinib is approved for those that cannot be removed, one of the first targeted approvals for a childhood solid tumour.

The MEN syndromes are inherited faults in a single gene that cause tumours in several hormone glands over a lifetime. Because the gene can be found in childhood, at-risk relatives can be tested, watched and in MEN2 have the thyroid removed before cancer develops; and for MEN2 thyroid cancer that does spread there is now a precise pill, selpercatinib, that blocks the faulty RET protein.

Squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus, the world's commonest form, is linked to smoking, alcohol and very hot drinks and sits in the upper and middle gullet. It is treated with chemoradiation, with or without surgery, and immunotherapy has recently joined chemotherapy for advanced disease.

Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas are tumours of adrenaline-producing tissue that cause dangerous blood pressure surges. Surgery after careful blood-pressure blockade cures most, genetic testing finds an inherited cause in nearly half, and for the minority that spread there are now radioactive drugs that home to the tumour and, since 2025, the first oral targeted pill, belzutifan.

After an organ or stem cell transplant, the drugs that stop rejection also stop the immune system from policing Epstein-Barr virus, and infected B cells can grow into a lymphoma. The first move is to ease the immunosuppression; then the antibody rituximab, chemotherapy if needed, and, newest of all, off-the-shelf virus-specific T cells that restore the missing immune control.

Adrenocortical carcinoma is a rare, aggressive cancer of the adrenal gland that often over-produces hormones. Surgery is the only cure, mitotane is the one drug specific to it (with real toxicity), and chemotherapy or immunotherapy help only a minority.

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common cancer of all, caused by sun exposure and almost never life-threatening. Nearly all are removed surgically; the rare advanced cases are treated with drugs that block the hedgehog signalling pathway, and with immunotherapy if those fail.

Brain and spinal cord tumours range from slow-growing meningiomas and low-grade gliomas to glioblastoma, the commonest malignant brain tumour in adults, and a distinct set of childhood tumours such as medulloblastoma and diffuse midline glioma. Molecular markers now define them, and treatment is surgery, radiotherapy and, for some, drugs chosen by those markers.

Essential thrombocythaemia is a slow blood cancer in which the marrow makes too many platelets. Most people need only aspirin and monitoring; those at higher risk of clots take a drug to lower the platelet count, usually hydroxyurea or interferon, with anagrelide in reserve.

Leiomyosarcoma is a cancer of smooth muscle, most often in the womb, the abdomen behind the bowel or the wall of a large vein. Surgery is the only cure; for spread disease, doxorubicin-based chemotherapy, trabectedin and gemcitabine-docetaxel are the standards, with no targeted drug yet.

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare, fast-growing skin cancer, usually caused by a common virus (Merkel cell polyomavirus) or by sun damage. It was almost untreatable once it spread; PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy now gives lasting responses in about half of patients.

Once bladder cancer has grown into the muscle it needs more than scraping out: chemotherapy then removal of the bladder, or chemoradiation to keep it. For cancer that has spread, the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin with pembrolizumab has replaced platinum chemotherapy as the first treatment.

Most bladder cancers are found while still confined to the lining. They are scraped out through the urethra and, when higher risk, treated with BCG instilled into the bladder; the challenge is the frequent recurrences and the patients whose tumours stop responding to BCG.

Papillary thyroid cancer is the commonest and most curable thyroid cancer. Most people are treated with surgery, some with radioactive iodine afterwards, and many small tumours can simply be watched. Only the rare tumours that stop taking up iodine need targeted drugs.

Penile cancer is a squamous skin-type cancer, about half of it caused by HPV. Caught early it is usually cured with organ-sparing surgery that has replaced amputation, and HPV vaccination and circumcision prevent it; the hard cases are those with lymph-node spread, where cisplatin-based chemotherapy plus surgery and now immunotherapy are being tested in the InPACT trial.

Cancers of the small intestine are rare and often found late because the small bowel is hard to see and symptoms are vague. Surgery cures early disease, chemotherapy borrowed from bowel cancer helps after surgery and in advanced disease, and a large minority of tumours have a repair defect that makes them respond well to immunotherapy.

Systemic mastocytosis is a clonal disease of mast cells, the immune cells that release histamine; almost every case is driven by a single mutation in the KIT gene. Precise KIT-blocking pills now shrink the mast cell burden, ease symptoms and, in the aggressive forms, prolong life. Most patients have the indolent form, where the goal is controlling symptoms and preventing anaphylaxis.

A melanoma inside the eye that is biologically unrelated to skin melanoma: different mutations, no response to standard immunotherapy, and a tendency to spread to the liver years later. Tebentafusp is the first drug ever to extend survival in the metastatic disease.

Wilms tumour is a kidney cancer of young children and one of paediatric oncology's success stories: surgery plus a few months of chemotherapy cures about nine in ten. Today's trials aim to give the lowest-risk children almost no chemotherapy while finding the few with aggressive biology.

Anaplastic thyroid cancer is the rare, fast-growing form that presents as a rapidly enlarging neck mass threatening the airway. It was almost uniformly fatal within months; combining BRAF-targeted drugs, immunotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy has lifted survival for the first time.

ATRT is an aggressive brain tumour of babies and toddlers caused by loss of a single gene, SMARCB1, part of the machinery that opens and closes DNA. Intensive chemotherapy with stem-cell rescue, and radiotherapy where age allows, now cure a meaningful share of children who once had little chance, and drugs aimed at the epigenetic consequence of SMARCB1 loss (EZH2 inhibitors) are in trials.

Burkitt lymphoma is the fastest-growing human tumour, driven by a single rearrangement that switches on the MYC gene. That speed makes it exquisitely sensitive to chemotherapy: short, intense courses, now with the antibody rituximab, cure the great majority of children in well-resourced settings. The remaining task is to bring the same cure to the African children who make up most cases.

Cancer found already spread, where doctors cannot find where it started. Genomic profiling finds a drug target in about a third of cases and tumour-agnostic approvals apply directly; the rest still rely on general-purpose chemotherapy, which is what those tests are changing.

Germ cell tumours arise from the cells meant to become eggs or sperm and can appear in the gonads, lower back, chest or brain. They are among the most curable childhood cancers because they respond to cisplatin chemotherapy and release blood markers that make monitoring easy. The work now is to cure with less: surgery alone for low-risk tumours, gentler platinum drugs, and protecting hearing.

Hepatoblastoma is a liver cancer of toddlers, cured in most standard-risk cases with cisplatin chemotherapy and surgery, including liver transplant when the tumour cannot be cut out. Sodium thiosulfate given after cisplatin halves the permanent hearing loss cisplatin causes, and became the first approved otoprotectant in 2022.

Marginal zone lymphoma is a slow B-cell lymphoma that often grows where the body has been fighting a chronic infection: the stomach with Helicobacter pylori, the eye, the skin or the spleen. Curing the infection cures many early cases; the rest are treated with rituximab, chemotherapy or BTK inhibitors.

Cancers of the nose and sinuses are a mixed group, from squamous carcinoma to the nerve-derived esthesioneuroblastoma and the aggressive undifferentiated carcinoma SNUC. Surgery through the nose with an endoscope followed by precise radiotherapy has replaced disfiguring open operations, and giving chemotherapy first to see who responds now guides how SNUC is treated.

An eye cancer of infants caused by loss of the RB1 gene, the first tumour-suppressor gene ever found. In rich countries almost every child survives and most eyes are saved by chemotherapy delivered through the eye's artery; in low-income countries, where most cases occur, survival depends on finding it early, and that is the global gap.

Synovial sarcoma is a young person's sarcoma driven by a single fusion gene, SS18-SSX, that scrambles how genes are switched on. It is treated with surgery, radiotherapy and ifosfamide-based chemotherapy, and in 2024 it became the first solid tumour with an approved engineered T-cell receptor therapy.

TGCT is a benign but destructive tumour of the joint lining in which a few cells carrying a CSF1 gene fusion recruit a crowd of normal immune cells that eat away at the joint. Surgery cures most localised cases, and for diffuse or recurrent disease two pills that block the CSF1 receptor, pexidartinib and vimseltinib, shrink tumours and restore joint function.

Urethral cancer grows in the tube that carries urine out of the body, with fewer than one case per million people a year. With no randomised trials, it is treated by borrowing from bladder, anal or vulvar cancer depending on cell type and location; chemotherapy with radiotherapy before or instead of surgery lets more patients keep their organs.

Vascular tumours range from angiosarcoma, an aggressive cancer of blood vessel lining cells, to the slow-growing EHE and the infant tumour KHE. Angiosarcoma responds to paclitaxel and, in the sun-damaged scalp form, to immunotherapy; EHE and KHE depend on growth signals that the mTOR blocker sirolimus quiets, and EHE without symptoms is watched.

Rare tumours of the appendix that range from slow mucin-producing growths that fill the abdomen (pseudomyxoma peritonei) to aggressive adenocarcinomas. The slow forms are treated by extensive surgery with heated chemotherapy in the abdomen; the fast ones like colon cancer.

Breast cancer is not one disease. Which of three receptor patterns the tumour carries decides its treatment: hormone receptor-positive (about 70 percent), HER2-positive (about 15 percent) or triple-negative (about 15 percent). The pages for each type hold the detail; this page holds what they share.

Craniopharyngioma is a benign but destructive tumour growing from embryonic remnants beside the pituitary gland and hypothalamus. Surgery, or limited surgery plus radiotherapy, cures most people, but the price can be lifelong hormone deficiency and severe obesity. The adult (papillary) form carries a BRAF mutation and shrinks dramatically with BRAF and MEK inhibitors, its first drug treatment.

Desmoid tumours are locally aggressive growths of fibroblast-like cells, driven by WNT pathway mutations, that never spread to distant organs but can invade nerves, bowel and muscle. A substantial fraction stop growing or shrink on their own, so watching first is standard; for those that progress, the gamma-secretase inhibitor nirogacestat, approved in 2023, shrinks tumours and relieves pain.

Extragonadal germ cell tumours are the same cancers as testicular germ cell tumours but arising in the midline of the body, most often the chest or the back of the abdomen. Seminomas are highly curable with chemotherapy; non-seminomas of the chest are the hardest germ cell tumours to cure and are treated with intensive chemotherapy followed by surgery.

Low-grade serous cancer is the slow-growing, chemotherapy-resistant cousin of the common ovarian cancer. Surgery and hormone therapy are its mainstays, and MEK inhibitors, alone or combined with a FAK inhibitor, are the first drugs shown to shrink it reliably.

Mucinous ovarian cancer is rare, usually confined to one large ovary at diagnosis and cured by surgery. Its genetics resemble bowel cancer more than ovarian cancer, and pathologists must first rule out a spread from the gut before making the diagnosis.

Paediatric low-grade gliomas are slow-growing brain tumours driven almost always by a single overactive signal, the MAPK pathway, most often through a BRAF gene change. Because the switch is known, pills that block it (dabrafenib with trametinib, and tovorafenib) now shrink tumours far more often than chemotherapy, and children are increasingly spared radiation to the developing brain.

Primary vaginal cancer is rare and mostly caused by HPV, the virus behind cervical cancer. It is treated like cervical cancer, with weekly cisplatin alongside external and internal radiotherapy, which controls most tumours while preserving the organ; HPV vaccination and cervical screening, which also detects vaginal precursors, are steadily reducing it.

Granulosa cell tumours make oestrogen, so they often announce themselves with abnormal bleeding, and almost all carry the same single FOXL2 mutation. Surgery cures most; relapses come late and are treated with further surgery, hormone-blocking drugs, bevacizumab or chemotherapy.

Primary lung tumours in children are rare and unlike adult lung cancer. Pleuropulmonary blastoma starts as a lung cyst in infants and results from a faulty DICER1 gene that also predisposes to thyroid, ovarian and kidney tumours; removing cysts early, guided by an international registry and family gene testing, prevents progression to the aggressive solid forms.

Chordoma is a slow-growing bone cancer of the skull base and spine that arises from leftover embryonic notochord cells. Complete surgery followed by high-dose proton or carbon-ion radiotherapy controls most tumours, and the whole disease depends on a single transcription factor, brachyury, which vaccines and degraders are now trying to hit.

Chromophobe kidney cancer comes from a different cell of the kidney's tubules, usually behaves gently and is cured by surgery. Its rare metastatic form responds poorly to immunotherapy, so kinase and mTOR inhibitors are used, and it runs in families with Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome.

Ependymomas grow from the cells lining the fluid spaces of the brain and spinal cord, mostly in children under five. Removing the whole tumour followed by focused radiotherapy controls most cases; molecular groups defined in 2021 behave differently, with posterior fossa group A relapsing often, and there is no approved drug.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis is a disorder in which a small group of immune cells with a faulty growth signal (most often a BRAF mutation) pile up in bone, skin, pituitary or organs. It ranges from a single bone lesion that heals after biopsy to a life-threatening disease of infants. A year of gentle chemotherapy cures most children, and BRAF or MEK inhibitors rescue those with resistant disease.

Lung cancer splits into non-small-cell (about 85 percent) and small-cell (about 15 percent) disease, which behave and are treated very differently. The subtype pages carry the detail; this page covers screening, staging and what the types share.

Medullary thyroid cancer comes from the calcitonin-making C cells, not the thyroid hormone cells, so radioactive iodine does not work. Surgery is the only cure, a quarter of cases run in families through the RET gene, and the RET-selective drug selpercatinib has transformed treatment of advanced disease.

NUT carcinoma is a fast-growing cancer of the midline of the body driven by a single fused gene, BRD4-NUTM1, that locks cells in an immature state. Chemotherapy and surgery rarely control it for long, but drugs that block the BET proteins the fusion depends on have produced responses and are the focus of trials.

Cancer of the mouth and tongue is caused mainly by tobacco, alcohol and betel quid and is usually visible or feelable early, yet often diagnosed late. Surgery is the mainstay, with radiotherapy or chemoradiation after operation for higher-risk disease, and reconstruction to restore speech and swallowing.

Cancer of the tonsils and back of the tongue now comes mostly from HPV infection rather than smoking, and behaves like a different disease: it responds well to chemoradiation, most patients are cured, and the research question is how much treatment can safely be removed.

Papillary kidney cancer is the second commonest type and does not share the VHL biology of clear cell cancer, so the drugs work differently: the MET-targeting drug cabozantinib beat sunitinib in the first trial run just for this disease, and two hereditary syndromes account for some cases.

Peritoneal mesothelioma grows in the lining of the abdomen, causing swelling, pain and fluid. Unlike its pleural cousin it is often treated with major surgery to strip the lining followed by heated chemotherapy washed through the abdomen, which can give long survival in fit patients with epithelioid disease.

Pituitary tumours are usually benign growths of the hormone gland at the base of the brain that cause trouble by overproducing hormones or pressing on the optic nerves. Prolactin-producing tumours melt away with a tablet, most others are cured by surgery through the nose, and the rare aggressive ones respond to the chemotherapy drug temozolomide.

Pleural mesothelioma grows in the lining of the lung after asbestos exposure and causes breathlessness and chest pain from fluid and thickening. It is rarely curable; the first-line choice is nivolumab with ipilimumab or pembrolizumab with chemotherapy, and surgery to remove the lining is no longer recommended outside trials.

Some childhood cancers are so rare that no single hospital sees enough to learn from. The NCI groups them together: heart tumours, airway papillomas, cancers of the thyroid, adrenal, nose and throat, melanoma and carcinomas more typical of adults. The answer has been international registries and expert networks that pool every case, so treatment guidance exists even without trials.

Seminoma is the slower, more radiosensitive half of testicular cancer. After removal of the testicle most men need no further treatment and are simply monitored; those who relapse or present with spread are cured with a short course of chemotherapy.

Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm is a rare aggressive blood cancer of dendritic-cell precursors, a few hundred US cases a year, that often first appears as bruise-like skin lesions. Two CD123-directed drugs, tagraxofusp and pivekimab sunirine, are the first targeted therapies; allogeneic transplant in first remission is still the only route to long-term control.

Clear cell ovarian cancer grows out of endometriosis, is usually caught early and cured by surgery, but when advanced it resists platinum chemotherapy. Its distinct genetics, with ARID1A and PIK3CA mutations, are the focus of targeted and immune approaches.

DCIS is abnormal cells confined to the milk ducts; it is not yet invasive cancer and cannot spread, but some would become invasive if left. Lumpectomy with radiotherapy, or mastectomy, halves local recurrence, so the live question is which low-risk DCIS can safely be watched: the COMET trial (2024) found active monitoring no worse at two years.

Epithelioid sarcoma is a rare soft tissue cancer that has lost a gene brake called SMARCB1, leaving it dependent on the enzyme EZH2. Surgery cures localised tumours, and the EZH2 inhibitor tazemetostat, the first epigenetic drug approved for a solid tumour, gives durable disease control in some advanced cases.

Follicular thyroid cancer looks like a benign nodule on a needle biopsy, so the diagnosis is usually made only after surgery. It spreads through the bloodstream rather than to neck nodes, is treated like papillary cancer with surgery and radioactive iodine, and has a good outlook when caught early.

Cancer of the voice box announces itself with hoarseness and is highly curable when caught early, by laser surgery or radiotherapy that preserve the voice. Advanced disease is treated with chemoradiation to keep the larynx where possible, with total laryngectomy for the most extensive tumours or when other treatment fails.

Liposarcoma is a cancer of fat cells that comes in four different forms: two driven by extra copies of the MDM2 gene, one by a fusion gene that makes it unusually sensitive to radiotherapy and trabectedin, and one that behaves like other aggressive sarcomas. Surgery is the mainstay and MDM2 inhibitors are the most promising drugs in trials.

Non-seminoma is the faster-growing half of testicular cancer, marked by AFP and hCG in the blood. Surgery cures most early cases, cisplatin chemotherapy cures most of the rest, and surgeons remove what remains after chemotherapy because teratoma does not respond to drugs.

Diffuse midline glioma grows through the brainstem and cannot be removed surgically. A single change in a histone protein (H3 K27M) rewires how the tumour reads its DNA. Radiotherapy was long the only help; in 2025 the first drug aimed at this tumour, dordaviprone (ONC201), was approved after durable shrinkage in some patients, and GD2 CAR-T cells have produced striking early responses.

Leukaemia means cancer of the blood-forming cells, but the four main types share little beyond the name: acute lymphoblastic and acute myeloid leukaemia are emergencies treated with intensive therapy, while chronic lymphocytic and chronic myeloid leukaemia are slow diseases controlled for years with pills. Each has its own page.

Parathyroid carcinoma is a cancer of the glands that control blood calcium, seen in a few people per ten million a year; most of its harm comes from dangerously high calcium rather than spread. Removing the tumour intact at the first operation gives the best chance of cure, and cinacalcet and bone-protecting drugs control calcium when it cannot be removed.