How to Write 癌 (ái) — Meaning “cancer”

Imagine a mountain (嵒) inside a hospital bed (疒) because cancer feels like a huge, immovable mountain of illness. The radical 疒 looks like a bed with a person lying down, and the mountain reminds you that cancer is a heavy, challenging disease.

Write the radical 疒 first: dot, horizontal stroke with a left-falling stroke, then two dots inside. The right part 嵒 is tall: start with a mountain radical, then three openings; note the bottom is three vertical strokes. Keep the left radical compact and the right part vertically aligned to avoid making the character too wide.

癌 means cancer (a malignant disease), while 瘛 (chì) is an archaic term for muscle spasms or convulsions, and 瘜 (xī) means a polyp or growth in the nose. Visually, 癌 has the right component 嵒 (with many strokes), while 瘛 uses 制 and 瘜 uses 息. They share the 疒 radical but differ in meaning and usage frequency.

癌 is used in medical terms like 癌症 (cancer) and specific types such as 肺癌 (lung cancer). In Chinese culture, discussing cancer directly can be sensitive, and sometimes euphemisms like "恶病" (è bìng, evil disease) are used in informal conversation. The character is strictly formal and appears in health, news, and medical contexts.

Common words containing 癌 include: 癌症 (ái zhèng) — cancer; 肺癌 (fèi ái) — lung cancer; 肝癌 (gān ái) — Liver cancer..