(noun. /path-o-JEN-ih-sis)
by Yasemin Cole
What does it mean?
Pathogenesis is the cause and development of a disease in an organism. Usually, there are multiple reasons for a disease to develop.
Physicians and scientists observe a pattern in the types of patients developing a disease (e.g., traveling to wet markets in China for COVID-19 or smoking causing lung cancer). Then research is undertaken to determine the pathogen so that we can develop ways to diagnose, treat, and manage conditions in patients.
For example, cancer can be caused by changes in the DNA, inappropriate responses by the immune system, infection of cells by viruses, exposure to environmental chemicals, etc. These different causes, or etiologies, affect the development or progression of the cancer.
How do I use it in a sentence?
“The pathogenesis of COVID-19 is the infection of type II pneumocyte cells with coronavirus.”
Etymology
The Greek roots “patho” means suffering/disease, and “genesis” means generation and origin.
History of usage
This term was coined in the late 1700s. In medical research records from 1788, there is a German text describing the cause of itchiness due to insects.
Related terms
Etiology
Fields of study in which this word is commonly used
Pathology
Infectious Disease
Cancer Biology
Epidemiology
