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Definition

• Metastasis is the spread of a disease (usually cancer) from an original site of infection to other parts of the body. Metastatis usually happens when cancer cells break off from the original (primary) tumor and travel through the blood vessels or lymph system to a new site.
• Metastatic is used to describe a cancer that has metastasized, e.g. "metastatic breast cancer".
• Metastases refers to two or more metastatic tumors.

Do not confuse this term with metathesis which is completely unrelated.

Additional Info

Metastatic cancers usually indicate a malignant primary cancer, one that is life-threatening and possibly incurable. The metastic tumor cells are generally like those at the original tumor site and can indicate the original site where the cancer first developed in the body.

Some cancers metastasize easily and others do not. Factors that affect the likelihood of metastasis include the location, type, stage, and size of the original tumor.

Some metastatic cancers can be successfully treated whereas the majority have a very poor prognosis, most metastatic lung and pancreatic cancers, in particular.

SDS Relevance

See malignant. This term is unlikely to appear on a Safety Data Sheet except for a possible description of health effects such as "metastatic bone cancer". Symptoms of exposure will be listed in Section 11 (toxicological information) of the SDS.

The term can also appear on the SDS of drugs used to treat metastatic diseases, of course.

Further Reading

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• Metastatic Cancer: Questions and Answers at the US's National Cancer Institute.
• Advanced Cancer, Metastatic Cancer, and Bone Metastasis at The American Cancer Society.
• Slipping Past Cancer's Barriers at American Scientist discusses the challenges of attacking metastatic tumors.
• Metastasis: The spread of cancer cells to distant sites implies a complex series of cellular abnormalities caused, in part, by genetic aberrations from Amer Scientist, 1998, 86(2), pp 130-141 (institutional access required).
• Metastatic Brain Tumors at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.
• All About Brain Metastases at the U of Pennsylvania's OncoLink.
• Metastatic Brain Tumors at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
• The NIH's National Library of Medicine web site, ClinicalTrials.gov, offers hope for new treatments of many conditions including a wide variety of metastatic diseases.

See also: carcinogen, leukemia, malignant.

Additional definitions from Google and OneLook.

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