Glossary Term:

Title

differentiation

Phonetic

<b>dif</b>-uhr-<b>en</b>-she-<b>A</b>-shun

Description

The process through which cells mature so they can do the jobs they were meant to do. It describes how much or how little cancer cells look like the normal tissue they came from. Cancer cells that are well-differentiated look more like normal cells and tend to grow and spread more slowly than poorly differentiated or undifferentiated cancer cells.