How is each cancer type named?
Cancer is named after the part of the body where it originated. When cancer spreads, it keeps this same name. For example, if kidney cancer spreads to the lungs, it is still kidney cancer, not lung cancer. (The lung cancer would be an example of a secondary tumor.) Staging is the process of determining whether cancer has spread and, if so, how far. There is more than one system used for staging cancer, and the definition of each stage will depend on the type of cancer.
