Cancer Cancer Basics

Cancer at a Distance: Understanding Metastasis

By Christine Haran

Twenty years ago, talking about cancer was so taboo that people were reluctant to even use the word. Today, due to increased awareness of cancer and improvements in detection and treatment, many people are living longer and feel more comfortable talking about their illness.

Still, the word "cancer" encompasses many different complex diseases and misunderstandings continue to arise. One common source of cancer confusion is the definition of metastastic cancer. Some wonder why a cousin is said to have died of breast cancer when it was actually a tumor in her lungs that lead to her death. In such cases, the primary, or original, tumor began in the breast. But then, cancer cells from that tumor broke off and traveled through the bloodstream to the lungs, where they established a metastastic tumor.

Thus, metastatic cancer refers to cancers that have spread to a site in the body that is far from the original tumor. Sometimes the person will experience symptoms such as pain—particularly when it seeds in bone—while other times it remains concealed and painless.

Below, Dr. Karen Antman, a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of Columbia's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, explains how metastasis occurs, and treatments for some common metastases.