Härdplast cancer
If you’ve recently been diagnosed with a localized cancer – one that hasn’t spread – your care team can tell you if your cancer is likely to spread and what symptoms to look for. It’s important to share any symptoms you experience with your care team so you can catch metastases early. Find information and resources for current and returning patients. Learn about clinical trials at MD Anderson and search our database for open studies.
The Lyda Hill Cancer Prevention Center provides cancer risk assessment, screening and diagnostic services. Your gift will help support our mission to end cancer and make a difference in the lives of our patients. Our personalized portal helps you refer your patients and communicate with their MD Anderson care team. As part of our mission to eliminate cancer, MD Anderson researchers conduct hundreds of clinical trials to test new treatments for both common and rare cancers.
Choose from 12 allied health programs at School of Health Professions. Learn about our graduate medical education residency and fellowship opportunities. BY Kellie Bramlet Blackburn. But, what is metastasis? What does it mean for your cancer treatment? And is it curable? We got details on metastasis from Jeffrey Gershenwald, M. Cancer occurs when an abnormal cell inside the human body duplicates. Sometimes these cells form a mass called a tumor.
In other words, when cancer has metastasized, we mean it has spread. We classify cancer by where it starts, no matter where it spreads to. Breast cancer is cancer that started in the breast, and bladder cancer is cancer that started in the bladder.
Metastatic cancer: What happens when cancer spreads?
When bladder cancer spreads to a region like the liver, for example, the patient does not have liver cancer and bladder cancer. It differs depending on the cancer type, but in most cases, cancer that has spread to distant organs is stage IV cancer. Whether or not a cancer can be truly cured is not an easy question to answer. For example, stage IV melanoma used to be considered impossible to treat for most cancers, but thanks to immunotherapy and some other treatments, these patients are seeing no evidence of disease for several years.
There are a few ways cancer cells may spread. They may move directly into the nearby areas, or they might travel through the blood stream or the lymph node system to other parts of the body. Researchers have been studying cancer and the way it spreads for decades. For example, breast cancer is more likely to spread to the nearby lymph nodes — a regional metastasis.
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Melanoma, lung , breast and kidney cancer all carry a risk of spreading to the brain — a distant metastasis. In fact, an estimated , to , people are diagnosed with brain metastasis each year, compared to about 17, diagnoses for primary brain tumors. If a cancer spreads to the brain, a patient may experience dizziness, blurred vision, weakness or headaches. If the cancer spreads to parts of the digestive system, patients may experience changes in bowel habits.
Early detection is key to successful cancer treatment. Staging may also be conducted through biopsies , like blood tests and surgeries that show where cancer has spread. How many parts of the body the cancer has spread to determines the stage of the cancer. This will be different for each cancer type, and not all cancers require formal staging, but typically, the higher the stage, the more places the cancer has spread. When cancer has spread, it typically is treated differently and more aggressively.
Instead, doctors will rely on treatments like chemotherapy , radiation , proton therapy or immunotherapy to treat metastatic cancer. Treating metastatic cancer is complex. Find a multidisciplinary care team that has experience treating your specific cancer type. New targeted therapies are improving and bringing hope to our patients. Finding the right care team with the right treatment can help cancer patients get more time and a better quality of life.
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