All cancers are not the same. Most cancers can be treated successfully. Most cancers should be caught early for better outcomes.

When cancer cells spread to other parts of the body, a complex series of cellular abnormalities occur. Metastasis is the term used for cancers that spread. Our body is made up of trillions of cells. Each cell has a purpose and a job to do. They usually work well with each other. Sometimes they become damaged.

When observed under a microscope and tested in other ways, metastatic cancer cells have features like that of the primary cancer and not like the cells in the place where the metastatic cancer is found. This is how doctors can tell that it is cancer and has spread from another part of the body.

Metastatic cancer has the same name as the primary cancer. For example, breast cancer that spreads to the lung is called metastatic breast cancer, not lung cancer. It is treated as stage IV breast cancer, not as lung cancer.

When cancer spreads, genes and chromosomes of cells become disorganized, leading them to react with genetic programs far different from the intended normal functioning. It has often been noted that cancer cells lose functions and, as a result, fail to fully develop the characteristics and proper activities of mature cells of their type. Normal cells are designed for specific activities. They are not meant to roam around the body and take up residence in other organs. Metastatic cancer cells are altered in such a way that they can break those bonds.

Metastatic cancer cells are altered in such a way that they can chew through the walls that line tissues and blood vessels and quite literally walk away from their parent organ to invade other tissues and organs.

A diagnosis of cancer marks an abrupt change in the life of the patient, as well as their family members. Life seems to become separated into before and after. Yet the events that lead a cell to become cancerous take place gradually, sometimes over periods that can exceed 10 years. Which was my husband’s case. During this lengthy evolution, cells undergoing cancerous transformation accumulate genetic abnormalities, one important consequence of which is that cellular growth becomes deregulated.

Cancer cells spread through the body in a series of steps. They include:

• Growing into, or invading, nearby normal tissue.
• Moving through the walls of nearby lymph nodes or blood vessels.
• Traveling through the lymphatic system and bloodstream to other parts of the body.
• Stopping in small blood vessels at a distant location, invading the blood vessels walls, and moving into the surrounding tissue
• Growing in this tissue until a tiny tumor forms.
• Causing new blood vessels to grow, which creates a blood supply that allows the metastatic tumor to continue growing.When canc

Cancer cells can start in any cell in the body. Cancer cells have gene mutations that turn the cell from a normal cell into a cancer cell. They tend to spread to lymph nodes, bones, brain, liver and lungs. Cancer cells can be vicious and aggressively invade other tissues.

A solid tumor is a highly organized and complex structure that evolves to invade the surrounding tissue and ultimately colonize distant organs where it grows and spreads. This end stage of metastatic progression is the main cause of mortality among cancer patients.

Tumors are characterized by a great extent of heterogeneity (not alike), where subpools of cancer cells are differentially sensitive to targeted therapies. Chemo is not a cure. High levels of chemotherapeutic resistance are the main problems when treating advanced diseases. A deeper understanding of the tumor complexity is required in order to develop novel, more effective therapeutic approaches. Hopefully those treatment can have limited side effects and refuse to work.

Surgery can remove a primary cancer and seems relatively easy. Thinking the cancer was cancelled out. However, cancer cells can escape in their goal to terminate a patients life. Because they are so aggressive, a surgeon can’t remove every last tumor that has spread. Making this condition impossible to eliminate entirely.

That is when traditional treatments are initiated. Chemo and radiation. Not necessarily given a the same time. I will be writing more about the side effects of chemo drugs and radiation.