How does cancer spread throughout body?
The process is called metastasis, and the cells are called metastatic cells. But the reality is that no one has ever really seen a metastatic cell. There are now known to be cells circulating in the blood that are tumor cells, and these are called circculating tumor cells or CTCs. But we do not know whether these are the same as the metastatic cells. Yes it makes sense that they would be, but no one has ever proven that they are in fact. CTCs are found in non-metastatic patients, but their presence in large numbers is a negative prognostic factor for a cancer patient. Cancer researchers are working very hard on trying to figure out how metastasis occurs and how to prevent it, because metastatic patients are different from all the others in that their cancers are not curable. One interesting piece of recent data is that zolendronate (Zometa) was given to breast cancer patients in an effort to prevent mets to the bone, which are common in breast cancer, and Zometa is an osteoporosis drug
Most likely when cancer has spread to other areas (metastasized) it does so via the lymphatic system. As the cancer cells grow and become more abundant, the body tries to clear them via the lymph nodes and lymphatic fluid of the body. Since the lymphatic system runs throughout the body, the cancer cells can easily be spread to other areas away from the initial site as the lymph fluid flows around. When someone has an operation to remove cancer, doctors will also test the surrounding lymph nodes to see if there has been any spreading of the disease. In breast cancer for example, this is called a sentinel node biopsy. This is where a dye is injected into the tumor site then the doctor traces the flow of the dye to see what lymph nodes are “clearing” that area. The nodes are then biopsied in succession to see if they are negative or positive for cancer. Another thing common to cancerous tumors is something called angiogenesis. This term refers to the development of a large amount of blood
Our body is made up of organs. Our organs are made up of tissues. Our tissues are made up of cells. All types of cancer begin in cells. In the healthy body, cells grow and divide to reproduce more cells whenever required to our body. When cells become old, they die. Sometimes this cycle of cells go wrong. Cells do not die after getting old, and reproduces new cells whenever not required.
Cancer is spread either through your bloodstream or through your lymph nodes. With solid type tumors like breast or colon cancer, some of the tumor cells break off and those cells are the ones that travel through your bloodstream or through your lymph nodes and start a new tumor elsewhere. Metastatic cells are seen all the time and they look just like the original tumor they came from, because they are.
