Related topics: breast cancer



Metastasis

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Metastasis (Greek: displacement, μετά=next + στάσις=placement, plural: metastases), or Metastatic disease, sometimes abbreviated mets, is the spread of a disease from one organ or part to another non-adjacent organ or part. Only malignant tumor cells and infections have the established capacity to metastasize; however, this is recently reconsidered by new research.

Cancer cells can break away, leak, or spill from a primary tumor, enter lymphatic and blood vessels, circulate through the bloodstream, and settle down to grow within normal tissues elsewhere in the body. Metastasis is one of three hallmarks of malignancy (contrast benign tumors). Most tumors and other neoplasms can metastasize, although in varying degrees (e.g., glioma and basal cell carcinoma rarely metastasize).

When tumor cells metastasize, the new tumor is called a secondary or metastatic tumor, and its cells are like those in the original tumor. This means, for example, that, if breast cancer metastasizes to the lungs, the secondary tumor is made up of abnormal breast cells, not of abnormal lung cells. The tumor in the lung is then called metastatic breast cancer, not lung cancer.

For more information about Metastasis, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with metastasis


'Live' imaging reveals breast cancer cells' transition to metastasis

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 06, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

The spread, or metastasis, of individual breast cancer cells from the main tumor into the blood circulation to the lungs and other body tissues and organs is under the control of a growth factor abbreviated TGFb, according ...





Search results for metastasis


Metastasis formation revealed in detail and real time

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 20, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Up to 25% of cancer patients develop metastases in the brain - often long after successful treatment of the primary tumor. In almost all such cases, the prognosis is poor. The mechanisms responsible for the appearance of ...


Crosstalk between critical cell-signaling pathways holds clues to tumor invasion and metastasis

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Two signaling pathways essential to normal human development - the Wnt/Wingless (Wnt) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathways - interact in ways that can promote tumor cell invasion and metastasis, researchers ...


Heparanase-specific shRNA: A novel therapeutic strategy in human gastric cancer

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Previous studies have indicated that the heparanase (HPA) is correlated with histopathological parameters and poor prognosis of gastric cancers. Although their efficiencies in inhibiting the expression of HPA, the traditional ...


'Self-seeding' of cancer cells may play a critical role in tumor progression

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created 1hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Cancer progression is commonly thought of as a process involving the growth of a primary tumor followed by metastasis, in which cancer cells leave the primary tumor and spread to distant organs. A new study by researchers ...


Jefferson neurosurgeon helps draft new treatment guidelines for brain metastases

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New treatment guidelines for patients with brain metastases are now available from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS). David Andrews, M.D., F.A.C.S., ...


CT imaging taken post avastin may predict survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Using routine computed tomography (CT) imaging to analyze form and structural changes to colorectal liver metastasis after bevacizumab and chemotherapy may predict overall survival, according to research from The University ...


Novel detection method unmasks circulating breast cancer cells

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 12, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Circulating metastatic breast cancer cells can lose their epithelial receptors, a process that enables them to travel through the bloodstream undetected, according to research from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer ...


New understanding of how to prevent destruction of a tumor suppressor

New understanding of how to prevent destruction of a tumor suppressor

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern and Case Western University have determined how the protein Mdm2, which is elevated in late-stage ...


Sonic Hedgehog variations linked to recurrence, survival and response to therapy of bladder cancer

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Genetic variations in the Sonic Hedgehog pathway increase the likelihood of recurrence, reduce survival time and limit response to therapy for people with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, scientists from The University ...


Scientists identify possible therapy target for aggressive cancer

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that a naturally occurring protein -- transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-ß1) -- which normally suppresses the growth of cancer cells, causes a rebound effect after ...



List of search results for metastasis