Metastasis
Cancer that has spread from where it started to distant parts of the body, travelling through the blood or lymph. Metastasis is what makes most cancers deadly.
To metastasise, a cell must break away from the primary, invade through tissue into a blood or lymph vessel, survive the journey, exit at a distant organ, and grow there; each step is inefficient, yet enough cells succeed that around ninety percent of cancer deaths are due to metastases rather than the primary. Common destinations depend on the cancer (bone for prostate and breast, liver for colorectal, brain for lung and melanoma). Metastatic cancer is stage IV and is usually treated with systemic therapy rather than surgery, aiming at long control rather than cure, though a few sites (limited liver metastases in colorectal cancer, oligometastatic disease) can still be treated with curative intent.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- TermIn situ
Shares Benign versus malignant, Invasive, Stage.
- TermTNM staging
Shares Primary tumour, Lymph node, Stage.
- IdeaWhat decides which disseminated cells ever colonise?
Shares Disseminated tumour cells (DTCs), Tumour dormancy, The metastatic cascade.
- TermGrade
Shares Benign versus malignant, Stage.
- TermRadiotherapy
Shares Palliative, Systemic versus local therapy.
- PathwayThe pre-metastatic niche
Shares Disseminated tumour cells (DTCs), Tumour dormancy, The metastatic cascade.
- TermRecurrence and relapse
- PathwayIntravasation & circulating tumour cells
Shares Disseminated tumour cells (DTCs), Hallmark: activating invasion and metastasis, The metastatic cascade.