Cancer is one of the most serious diseases due to its ability to spread cancer cells throughout the body, affecting nearby organs and tissues, but also to more distant places. These cancer cells that reach other organs are called metastases.
Although metastasis is found in another organ, they are still made up of cancer cells from the initial tumor, and therefore this does not mean that the cancer has developed in the new affected organ, for example, when breast cancer causes metastasis in the lung, the cells remain in the breast and should be treated in the same way as breast cancer.
- In most cases.
- Metastasis does not cause new symptoms.
- However.
- When these symptoms appear.
- They vary depending on the affected site.
- Including:.
However, some of these symptoms may also occur as a result of cancer treatment, so it is advisable to inform the oncologist of any new symptoms, in order to assess the possibility of being related to the development of metastasis.
Metastasis indicates malignancies, i.e. the body has not been able to fight the abnormal cell, promoting abnormal and uncontrolled proliferation of malignant cells.Learn more about malignancy.
Metastasis occurs due to the body’s low effectiveness in removing abnormal cells; as a result, malignant cells begin to proliferate independently and uncontrolled, which can pass through the walls of the lymph nodes and blood vessels and be transported through the circulatory and lymphatic system to other organs.and may be near or far from the primary site of the tumor.
In the new organ, cancer cells accumulate to form a tumor similar to the original.When in large numbers, cells can cause the body to form new blood vessels to bring more blood to the tumor, promoting the proliferation of more malignant cells and, therefore, their growth.
Although metastases can occur anywhere in the body, the most commonly affected areas are the lungs, liver, and bones; However, these locations may vary depending on the original cancer:
When cancer spreads to other organs, it is more difficult to cure, however, the treatment of metastases should remain similar to the treatment of original cancer, for example, through chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Healing is difficult to achieve because the disease is already at a more advanced stage and the presence of cancer cells can be observed in various parts of the body.
In the most severe cases, where the cancer is highly developed, it may not be possible to eliminate all metastases and therefore treatment is mainly done to relieve symptoms and delay the development of cancer.Understand how cancer treatment is done.