blastoma

Term: blastoma

Origin: Anc Greek

βλάστη> blastos (=sprout, germ)

 >βάλ-λω/valo(=push, throw) + ίστημι/istimi(=put)

+ -ωμα/-oma(=-oma, suffix meaning a state or a condition eg disease condition)

Coined

In 1961 Spencer coined the term pulmonary “blastoma”  instead of “embryoma of lung”  postulating that this tumour originated from primitive pluripotential mesoderm.

Definition

A blastoma is a type of  cancer that is caused by embryonic cells, often called blasts.

The suffix (-blastoma) is used to imply a tumor of primitive, incompletely differentiated cells, i.e.,osteoblastoma   (a bone tumor) and retinoblastoma(a tumor of the retina), chondroblastoma is composed of cells resembling the precursor of chondrocytes, glioblastoma and medulloblastoma (types of brain tumors), hepatoblastoma (a liver tumor), nephroblastoma (Wilms tumor of the kidney), neuroblastoma (a childhood tumor of neural origin).