squamous cell carcinoma

noun

: a carcinoma that is made up of or arises from squamous cells and usually occurs in areas of the body exposed to strong sunlight over many years

Examples of squamous cell carcinoma in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The other common type of non-melanoma skin cancer is squamous cell carcinoma. —Angus Chen and Rachel Cohrs, STAT, 3 Mar. 2023

Researchers also suspected that the drugs might prove effective against a common type of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma, whose dark-colored tumors invade and damage surrounding skin tissue. —Ben Thomas, Discover Magazine, 18 Dec. 2014

Over 6,000 cases of squamous cell carcinoma were compared to over 100,000 people who didn’t have or didn’t develop the cancer. —Ben Thomas, Discover Magazine, 18 Dec. 2014

Invasive squamous cell carcinoma of vulva that wanted to be a puppy. —Seriously Science, Discover Magazine, 6 Feb. 2015

Word History

First Known Use

1907, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

squamous cell carcinoma

noun

variants or squamous-cell carcinoma

: a carcinoma that is made up of or arises from squamous cells and usually occurs in areas of the body exposed to strong sunlight over a period of many years

More often than not, skin cancers turn out to be basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma; both are "nonmelanomas" and are usually not fatal.

—Claudia Kalb, Newsweek

More than 90 percent of esophageal cancers are either squamous-cell carcinomas or adenocarcinomas.

—Peter C. Enzinger and Robert J. Mayer, The New England Journal of Medicine