Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Pathogenesis
Introduction
Pathogenesis is the mechanism by which a certain etiological factor causes disease (pathos = disease, genesis = development). The term can also be used to describe the development of the disease, whether it is acute, chronic, recurrent etc.
Some forms of pathogenesis are:
In most diseases, there are multiple pathogenetical processes at work. For example, certain cancers arise from dysfunction of the immune system (skin tumors and lymphoma after a renal transplant – which requires immunosuppression).
Often, a potential etiology is identified by epidemiological observations before a pathological link can be drawn between the cause and the disease.
See also
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]