Metastasise

Metastasis is the medical term for cancer that spreads to a different part of the body from where it started. When this happens, doctors say the cancer has "metastasized." Your doctor may also call it "metastatic cancer," "advanced cancer," or "stage 4 cancer." But these terms can have different meanings based on where the cancer is located. Not all cancers that are advanced or stage 4 are metastatic.

Definition

Metastasis is the spread of a cancer or other disease from one organ or part of the body to another without being directly connected with it. The new occurrences of disease thus generated are referred to as metastases.

Mechanism

Metastasis involves a complex series of steps in which cancer cells leave the original tumor site and migrate to other parts of the body via the bloodstream, via the lymph system, or by direct extension. To do so, malignant cells break away from the primary tumor and attach to and degrade proteins that make up the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM), which separates the tumor from adjoining tissues. By degrading these proteins, cancer cells are able to breach the ECM and escape.

Diagnosis

The body can control metastatic cancer for a time, through the immune response of the body, or other mechanisms. But if a tumor is not removed, it will eventually grow large enough to interfere with the body's ability to function, or the cancer cells will break away and start growing in other places.

Treatment

Treatment and survival is determined by whether or not a cancer remains localized or spreads to other locations in the body. If the cancer metastasizes to other tissues or organs it usually dramatically increases a patient's likelihood of death.

See also

• Cancer
• Tumor
• Immune response

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