Oncology often seems to be used in a same body text as
Cancerology.

One site's glossary says that both words are synonymous. An other says
that they are not synonymous.

Could you tell us what is the true definition for both words, and
their difference?

Hello Lyamel-ga,

Before I start I would like to tell you that I’m not a medical expert.
However, I have a strong inclination for science that’s why I chose to
answer your question and I believe that this could be answered using
clear comparisons and logical presentation and analysis of the topic.
Since our aim is to extract the true definition, we need to look at
more reliable and authoritative sources other than those found in the
Internet. We shall start first with the definition of the terms.

There are numerous sources regarding the meaning of the words and we
shall begin with some general references.

According to one source, oncology is simply defined as “The branch of
medicine that deals with tumors”.
Excerpted from Oxford English Dictionary, The Learning Company, Inc.,
copyright 1998

Another source says oncology, “is the scientific study of tumors, both
benign and malignant.”
This was taken from the Grolier 2001 Encyclopedia, Grolier Interactive
Inc., copyright 2000

While a third source defines oncology as “the study of the
development, treatment, and prevention of cancer.”
Excerpted from World Book 2002 (Deluxe), World Book, Inc., copyright
2001

I checked once more. This time from Mosby’s Medical Encyclopedia, an
authoritative source that has a simple generalized definition that
says it is “the branch of medicine that deals with the study of
tumors.”

From the first and second definition, we can surmise that oncology
pertains to the study of tumors either benign or malignant. The third
definition did not say anything about tumors but instead, mentioned
cancer. This definition must have been made in an associative point of
view since tumors are related to cancer. This is way I checked again
with an authoritative source which resulted in the meaning that we
made from the first and second source.

To make it clearer we need to define “tumor”. I consulted Oxford
Dictionary again and found out that a tumor is an “abnormal swelling
or enlargement in any part of the body of an animal or plant” and that
it is “caused by excessive continued growth and proliferation of cells
in a tissue…” Tumors may be benign or malignant.

We then proceed to the definition of cancerology. Unfortunately, my
own sources do not have the definition so I searched the Internet for
a reliable source and found out that cancerology (can•cer•ol•o•gy) is
“the study of cancer.”
Excerpted from Fast Health.com, Published under license with
Merriam-Webster, Inc., copyright 1997-2000
http://www.fasthealth.com/dictionary/c/cancerology.php

By further analyzing the definitions, I’m sure you’ll agree that when
properly defined, the difference between ONCOLOGY and CANCEROLOGY are
as follows:

Oncology is a branch of science that deals with the study of TUMORS
both benign and malignant.

while

Cancerology is a branch of science that specializes in the study and
treatment of CANCER.


Internet search:

“cancerology” using Google web search


I hope these definitions made it clearer for you. Thanks for visiting
the site.

Feilong-ga

Thanks for your help.

Lyamel

If you compare the results of a Google search, you get approximately
1500 hits for cancerology, compared to 1,500,000 for oncology.  Also,
if you browse through the cancerology results, you will notice that a
very large proportion come from web sites in non-English-speaking
countries, especially France.  My impression is that English medical
terminology would use oncology, while cancerology is an anglicized
form of a French term used mainly by French authors when they write in
English. This is confirmed by the fact that MeSH, the thesaurus used
at the US National Library of Medicine, does not include an entry for
cancerology at all, not even to indicate that another term should be
used in its place.

Looking up the original French term cancerologie (with an accent on
the first e) gives 22,500 hits of French web pages, while oncologie
gives about 38,000 (although not all of these are French). It seems
therefore that the French language does make the distinction suggested
by feilong.

I forwarded these answers to my wife who is a Registrar in Oncology in
Birmingham, UK.

By the way I am French, and this is why I mentioned cancérologie
(cancerology) to my wife who had never heard of the term...

Thanks to you both.

Lyamel

...and thanks to you too. :D