癌

癌 (Kangxi radical 104, 疒+12, 17 strokes, cangjie input 大口口山 (KRRU), four-corner 0017₂, composition ⿸疒嵒)

• Kangxi Dictionary: not present, would follow page 781, character 10
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 22538
• Dae Jaweon: page 1190, character 23
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2697, character 4
• Unihan data for U+764C

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声) : semantic 疒 + phonetic 嵒 (OC *ŋrɯːm, *ŋjab); 嵒 / 岩 (yán) is a variant of 岩 (yán).

From 岩 (yán, “cliff; rock, stone”), since some cancers present as lumps or outgrowths on the body.

In Mandarin, this character used to be pronounced identically as 岩 (yán). Its pronunciation was changed to ái in December 1962 to avoid the homophony between 癌 (yán, “cancer”) and 炎 (yán, “inflammation”) (compare 肺炎 (fèiyán, “pneumonia”) and 肺癌 (fèi'ái, “lung cancer”)). The new pronunciation ái stems from dialectal pronunciations of 岩 (“rock; cliff”) /ŋai/, influenced by 崖 (yá, yái, “cliff”).

癌

1. cancer; carcinoma

   癌症  ―  áizhèng  ―  cancer

   致癌  ―  zhì'ái  ―  to cause cancer

   肺癌  ―  fèi'ái  ―  lung cancer

   直男癌  ―  zhínán'ái  ―  male chauvinism (literally, “straight men's cancer”)

• “癌”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• 普通話異讀詞審音表初稿(第三編) (in Chinese), 文字改革 , Issue 85, December 1962, page 1

(Hyōgai kanji)

1. cancer

• Go-on: げん (gen)
• Kan-on: がん (gan)

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

癌

Wikipedia ^ja

From Middle Chinese 癌.

• (Tokyo) がん (Atamadaka – )^[1][2]
• IPA^(key):

癌(がん) or 癌(ガン) • (gan) 

1. (medicine, oncology, pathology) cancer

   彼(かれ)の祖(そ)母(ぼ)は癌(がん)で死(し)んだ。

   Kare no sobo wa gan de shinda.

   His grandmother died of cancer.

   • 1997 September 1 [1996 October 10], Fujiko F. Fujio, “くたばれ評(ひょう)論(ろん)家(か)　の巻(まき) [The Drop-Dead Critic]”, in エスパー魔美 [Esper Mami], 4th edition, volume 1 (fiction), Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN, page 151:

     え？剣(つるぎ)鋭(えい)介(すけ)がガン⁉

     E? Tsurugi Eisuke ga gan⁉

     What? Eisuke Tsurugi has cancer!?

     文(ぶん)化(か)部(ぶ)の立(たち)原(はら)さんにきいたの、再(さい)発(はつ)ですって。ガン細(さい)胞(ぼう)があちこち転(てん)移(い)してて、こんどはダメだろうと………

     Bunkabu no Tachihara-san ni kiita no, saihatsu desu tte. Gan saibō ga achi kochi ten'i shite te, kondo wa dame darō to………

     I heard that from Mr. Tachihara of the Department of Culture, sounds like it’s a recurrence. The cancer cells have been spreading, seems like there’s not much hope this time around...

2. (figurative) cancer

   中(ちゅう)央(おう)集(しゅう)権(けん)体(たい)制(せい)は社(しゃ)会(かい)の癌(がん)になっている。

   Chūō shūken taisei wa shakai no gan ni natte iru.

   The centralized administrative system has become a cancer of society.

• This term is often spelled in katakana, especially in medical contexts, as ガン.

From Middle Chinese 癌.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

癌

Wikisource

癌 (eumhun 암 암 (am am))

1. hanja form^? of 암 (“cancer”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

癌: Hán Việt readings: nham^[1][2][3]
癌: Nôm readings: nham^[1]

1. chữ Hán form of nham (“cancer, mainly in compounds”).