preneoplastic

pre- +‎ neoplastic

preneoplastic (not comparable)

1. Before the formation of a neoplasm (tumor); meant usually with a notion of a suspected or putative chain of causation, as opposed to random chance alone.

   suspected of being a preneoplastic process

Just as neoplastic is hypernymous with both malignant (cancerous) and nonmalignant (benign), so preneoplastic is hypernymous (not synonymous) with premalignant (precancerous). Many uses of the term preneoplastic are imprecise uses with an intended meaning of premalignant.

• precancerous
• premalignant

• nonneoplastic
• preneoplasia