A term for cancers that have a firm and hard structure. Also called hard cancers, scirrhous cancers often are formed in the muscle wall of internal organs, such as the stomach. The cancerous cells infiltrate the muscle wall and turn it into rigid, leather like scar tissue that cannot stretch or move.
Describing carcinomas that are stony hard to the touch. Such a carcinoma (for example of the breast) is known as a scirrhus.
The term “sclerotic” refers to being “hard and fibrous”. It’s commonly used to describe cancerous tumors that consist of dense, fibrous tissue.