Invasive
Cancer that has grown through the boundary of the tissue it started in and into the surrounding tissue. This is the step that separates true cancer from in situ disease and gives it access to blood and lymph vessels.
Invasion requires cells to loosen their attachments to neighbours, degrade the basement membrane and surrounding matrix with enzymes, and move; it is the local prelude to metastasis and one of the hallmarks of cancer. On a pathology report 'invasive ductal carcinoma' or 'invasive adenocarcinoma' confirms real cancer, and the depth of invasion (into muscle in bladder cancer, through the bowel wall in colon cancer, in millimetres for melanoma) is a core part of the T component of staging. In trials, 'invasive disease-free survival' counts invasive recurrences and new invasive cancers as events but ignores in situ ones.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- TermPrimary tumour
Shares Stage, Metastasis.
- TermLymph node
Shares Stage, Metastasis.
- TermGrade
Shares Benign versus malignant, Stage.
- TermDisseminated tumour cells (DTCs)
Shares Metastasis, Hallmark: activating invasion and metastasis.
- TermScreening
- PathwayThe metastatic cascade
Shares Metastasis, Hallmark: activating invasion and metastasis, Epithelial–mesenchymal transition & drug efflux.
- PathwayTumour dormancy
Shares Metastasis, Hallmark: activating invasion and metastasis.
- PathwayTGF-β signalling
Shares Hallmark: activating invasion and metastasis, Epithelial–mesenchymal transition & drug efflux.