What is Metastasis?

Metastasis is when a disease from one organ to another nonadjacent organ. It is commonly known as a malignant tumor. These tumors are commonly found around the liver, brain, and the bones. This kind of tumor or cancer is usually found in the last stages of the cancer. This metastasis will stay as close as possible the primary tumor. Metastasis is complex and serious tumor that leaves the body and migrates in other parts of the bloodstream and the lymphatic system and without treatment it could kill you.

In all studies that researchers have found that metastasis is almost always found and is never a primary cancer. There is only a 3% chance of having metastasis and not knowing that you have any type of a primary cancer. Most of the common sites are in the lung, breast and skin area. Melanoma is the only skin cancer that can have metastasis. Then there are the colon, kidney, prostate, and the pancreas. Doctors can tell where the primary cancer started by the cells that they find when they look at the tumor underneath the telescope. When the cancer has metastasized, they can be treated with radiosurgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biological therapy, hormone therapy, or they can have surgery and they can even have a combination of any of the treatments. The type of treatment is up to the patient and depending on the type of cancer it is.

What are the first questions people ask when they find out that they have cancer: what is cancer? What is primary cancer? What is metastasis and how does it happen? Where does cancer spread? Are there systems of metastasis cancer? How does a doctor know whether a cancer is a primary or a metastasis tumor? Is it possible to have a metastasis tumor without having a primary cancer? What treatments are used for metastasis cancer? Are new treatments for metastasis cancer being developed?.