Cancer Metastasis Research Has Helped Us Understand How Cancerous Cells Work

By Timothy Stevens


Cancer is a diagnosis everyone dreads hearing. Even worse is the news that it is spreading, or metastasizing, and invading other parts of the body. This is life changing information. Cancers do not have to be fatal, but once they start traveling, controlling them is challenging. Cancer metastasis research has given doctors a lot of tools to work with. Understanding how cancerous cells move is one of them.

Metastasizing is what you don't want cancerous cells to do. This phenomenon is one of the things that makes the disease so serious. Affected cells can move anywhere on a person's body. They may not attack a neighboring organ as you would suppose. Cells use blood and lymph nodes to travel to far parts of the body. When they do this, cancers are considered stage four. When cancers move to other organs, they aren't renamed. They retain the name of the primary cancers.

Cancerous cells spread in a variety of ways. They may grow into, or attack normal tissue that is nearby. Cells may travel through the bloodstream to get to other parts of the body. The cells can stop anywhere in the blood vessels, invade the walls, and grow into small tumors. This creates new blood vessels and a blood supply that makes its possible for the new tumors to keep growing.

Diseased cells might travel anywhere in the body, but certain cancers tend to spread to particular areas. The most common organs cells spread to are the brain, liver, and lungs. If breast cancers are going to spread, these three organs are the most likely places it will go. Melanoma usually spreads to the brain, bones, skin, muscles, liver, and lungs. Kidney cancers may attack the adrenal glands.

Once cancerous cells have moved to an organ, there will be symptoms. Shortness of breath can be an indication that cells have moved into the lungs. Bone fractures might mean they have invaded bone tissue. Cells that spread to the brain can cause headaches, dizziness, and seizures.

Once cancerous cells have metastasized, they are difficult to control. The way doctors treat them depends on a lot of factors including the type of primary disease, the treatments the patient has already received, and the general health of the individual. The goal is to stop or slow the growth of the cells and give the patient some relief from the symptoms. These treatments sometimes prolong the life of the patient.

Sometimes the treatments fail and doctors have to tell patients that the cells are out of control. At this point, the patient can choose to do several things. The treatments can be continued in the hope that cells will stop traveling and tumors will shrink. Palliative care is an option that will relieve side effects and reduce the discomfort of symptoms.

Whatever path they choose, doctors will advise them to make end of life decisions for themselves and their loved ones. No one knows what life is going to throw at them. This kind of diagnosis makes a good argument for living every day as though it were the last.




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