Systemic therapy — which may be intravenous or oral treatment — is most commonly used for metastatic cancers. Examples of systemic therapy include chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy. Systemic therapy is particularly beneficial since it can address both visible and microscopic cancer throughout the body.
Treatment may include chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, or hormone therapy. Surgery and radiation therapy may also be options for some types of metastatic cancer. Doctors might try one type of treatment and then switch to another when the first treatment no longer works.
In most cases, metastatic cancer is not curable. However, treatment can slow growth and ease many of the associated symptoms. It's possible to live for several years with some types of cancer, even after it has metastasized. Some types of metastatic cancer are potentially curable, including melanoma and colon cancer.
A patient with widespread metastasis or with metastasis to the lymph nodes has a life expectancy of less than six weeks. A patient with metastasis to the brain has a more variable life expectancy (one to 16 months) depending on the number and location of lesions and the specifics of treatment.
During metastasis, cancer cells spread from the place in the body where they first formed to other parts of the body. Cancer cells spread through the body in a series of steps. These steps include: growing into, or invading, nearby normal tissue.
One approach is to prevent metastatic cancer instead of treating it after it's already there. The goal of this approach, called adjuvant or neoadjuvant therapy, is to not only shrink the primary tumor, but also to prevent disseminated tumor cells from forming metastatic tumors later on.
Most malignant tumors that metastasize do so within five years after the primary tumor has been detected, so this raises the question of how one can explain “dormancy” among tumor cells for decades.
Metastatic breast cancer may never go away completely. But treatment can control its spread. Cancer may even go into remission at some points. This means you have fewer signs and symptoms of cancer.
Stage IV. This stage means that the cancer has spread to other organs or parts of the body. It may be also called advanced or metastatic cancer.
However, survival varies greatly from person to person. About one-third of women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in the U.S. live at least 5 years after diagnosis [7]. Some women may live 10 or more years beyond diagnosis [9].
Chemo is considered a systemic treatment because the drugs travels throughout the body, and can kill cancer cells that have spread (metastasized) to parts of the body far away from the original (primary) tumor. This makes it different from treatments like surgery and radiation.
The 5-year survival rate tells you what percent of people live at least 5 years after the cancer is found. Percent means how many out of 100. The 5-year survival rate for women with metastatic breast cancer is 29%. The 5-year survival rate for men with metastatic breast cancer is 22%.
Stage 4 cancer is sometimes referred to as metastatic cancer, because it often means the cancer has spread from its origin to distant parts of the body. This stage may be diagnosed years after the initial cancer diagnosis and/or after the primary cancer has been treated or removed.
If correct, metastases grow much faster than primary tumours. However, growth rates and proliferation indices of paired metastases and primary tumours are similar, with metastases growing up to twice as fast as primary tumours1.
The five-year survival rate for people diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer that has spread (metastasized) to other areas of the body is 6 percent. Overall survival rates don't specify whether cancer survivors are still undergoing treatment at five years or if they've become cancer-free (achieved remission).
Stage I: The cancer is localized to a small area and hasn't spread to lymph nodes or other tissues. Stage II: The cancer has grown, but it hasn't spread. Stage III: The cancer has grown larger and has possibly spread to lymph nodes or other tissues. Stage IV: The cancer has spread to other organs or areas of your body.
That's because cancer that has spread from where it originated in the body to other organs is responsible for most deaths from the disease. But in 1995, two cancer researchers put forth a controversial concept: There is a state of cancer metastasis that isn't necessarily fatal.
This is also called end-stage cancer or terminal cancer. (Sometimes terminal cancer is called metastatic cancer, but they aren't always the same thing. To learn more, see Metastatic Cancer: When Cancer Spreads.) The following sections are specific to those with end-stage cancer.
When cancer metastasizes, usually when it is considered stage 4 cancer, it spreads to a different part of the body. Metastasis can impair the function of essential organs and body systems (digestion, lungs, bones, liver, blood vessels), which can cause essential body functions to cease.
Pain is usually the first symptom patients notice. It's most often felt at the site of the metastasis, which is referred to as localized pain. There are also cases where patients experience pain in areas surrounding the metastasis. Depending upon the location of the metastasis, the pain may vary.
The short answer is it varies from tumour to tumour. But overall, it's slower than you might expect. According to Professor Trevor Graham, a Cancer Research UK-funded cancer evolution expert, the best evidence for the fact that most cancers grow slowly comes from screening.
This spread is called metastasis. Metastasis can occur anywhere in the body and most commonly is found in the liver, lungs, brain, and bone. Malignant tumors can spread rapidly and require treatment to avoid spread.
Cancer metastasizes due to several factors, namely attack by the immune system, lack of oxygen and necessary nutrients, large amounts of lactic acid produced by glycolysis and increased cell death. Therefore, the majority of the presently available treatments for cancer also bear the potential to induce metastasis.
Lymph nodes are one of the most common places for cancer to spread. The liver, lungs, and bones are also common sites of metastasis. Certain types of cancer are more likely to spread to certain organs. For example, prostate cancer has a tendency to spread to bones.