Treatment & CareCancerTypes of Cancer

Types of Cancer

Throughout New Jersey, Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center Cancer Centers multidisciplinary teams are highly specialized, led by experts who treat specific forms of cancer - using the most effective therapies and technologies. As an Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center Melchiorre Cancer Center patient, you will receive compassionate care from New Jersey’s most experienced team of cancer specialists - a team committed to you, with specialized expertise and vast experience treating various types of cancer.

Medical Minutes with Michael Scoppetuolo, Jr., MD

What is cancer?

The body is made up of various kinds of cells, which normally divide in an orderly way to produce more cells only when they are needed. Cancer is a group of diseases - more than 100 types - that occur when cells become abnormal and divide without control or order.

What is a tumor?

When cells divide when new cells are not needed, too much tissue is formed. This mass of extra tissue, called a tumor, can be benign or malignant.

Benign tumors:

  • Are not cancer
  • Can usually be removed
  • Are rarely a threat to life
  • Do not come back in most cases
  • Do not spread to other parts of the body and the cells do not invade other tissues

Malignant tumors:

  • Are cancer
  • May be a threat to life
  • Can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs
  • Metastasize - cancer cells can break away from a malignant tumor and enter the bloodstream or lymphatic system to form secondary tumors in other parts of the body

Lymphedema

In addition to cancer treatment, we offer a lymphedema program at the RWJBarnabas Health Ambulatory Care Center that helps ease symptoms of lymphedema — lymph fluid buildup caused by the removal of lymph nodes — in patients. Our physical therapists, certified in complete decongestive therapy (CDT), use special techniques to reduce lymphedema symptoms. They also teach patients how to manage lymphedema symptoms themselves.