Desmoplasia

Overview
In medicine, desmoplasia refers to the formation of adhesions or fibrosis (fibrosis refers to scar tissue) in the vascular stroma of a neoplasm. Desmoplasia originates from the Greek desmos (meaning fetter or band) and plasia (meaning to form). It is usually used in the description of desmoplastic small round cell tumors. Neoplasm (or neoplasia) is the medical term used for both benign and malignant tumors. Basically, it's a blanket term that refers to abnormal, excessive, uncoordinated, and autonomous cellular/tissue growth. Usually you only see desmoplasia with malignant neoplasms, which can evoke a fibrosis response by invading healthy tissue. Infiltrating metastatic ductal carcinomas of the breast often have a scirrous, stellate appearance caused by desmoplastic formations.