I have seen that I have had several visits on the blog from different people that are asking..."Is Ledderhose disease cancer?" Or at least something along those lines so I thought I would clear up the matter a little bit. To be best most of this is just a rehash or simple copy and paste from the Cancer Research UK website which is great. I thought it would be best to start off with a definition of cancer and a definition of Ledderhose.
Cancer:
"Cancer is a disease caused by normal cells changing so that they grow in an uncontrolled way. The uncontrolled growth causes a lump called a tumour to form. If not treated, the tumour can cause problems in one or more of the following ways
- Spreading into normal tissues nearby
- Causing pressure on other body structures
- Spreading to other parts of the body through the lymphatic system or bloodstream" [1]
Ledderhose:
Now for a description made up by me.
Comparison:
As you can see there are some similarities and both do result in a tumour but a tumour does not mean cancer and for this I am going to go back to the Cancer Research UK page as this really does have lots of useful information.
"Tumours (lumps) can be benign or malignant. Benign means it is not cancer. Benign tumours
- Usually grow quite slowly
- Do not spread to other parts of the body
- Usually have a covering made up of normal cells
Benign tumours are made up of cells that are quite similar to normal cells. They will only cause a problem if they
- Grow very large
- Become uncomfortable or unsightly
- Press on other body organs
- Take up space inside the skull (such as a brain tumour)
- Release hormones that affect how the body works
Malignant tumours are made up of cancer cells. They
- Usually grow faster than benign tumours
- Spread into and destroy surrounding tissues
- Spread to other parts of the body" [1]
So as I said that info is just from the Cancer research UK page and is not my work but theirs but I think that it does a great job of explaining my point. Ledderhose disease tumours are benign tumours and do not spread around the body, if you also get something like Dupuytren's that is not the spread of the disease but rather the same disease occuring in another part of the body.
So I hope that should anyone come here now looking for the answer to this question they have it answered and have a great link to go to for more information.
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