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Metastatic cancer means the original cancer has spread to other parts of the body, most often the bones, liver, lungs or brain. It keeps the name of where it started, is treated with therapies that reach the whole body, and can increasingly be controlled for years; with limited spread it is sometimes treated with the aim of cure.
Metastasis is the process by which cancer cells leave the original tumour, travel through blood or lymph and grow in another organ. A breast cancer that has spread to the liver is still breast cancer and is treated with breast cancer drugs, which is why this page points to the cancer-specific pages for treatment. What metastatic cancers share is the intent and the tools: systemic therapy (chemotherapy, targeted drugs, hormone therapy, immunotherapy) rather than surgery alone; radiotherapy and bone-strengthening drugs for bone metastases; radiosurgery or surgery for brain metastases; and early palliative care alongside treatment, which improves quality of life and in some studies survival. Two ideas have changed the outlook: many metastatic cancers are now chronic conditions controlled for years, and oligometastatic disease, spread limited to a few sites, is increasingly treated with stereotactic radiotherapy or surgery to every site with the aim of long remission, as the SABR-COMET trial suggested. Circulating tumour DNA is beginning to detect and monitor spread from a blood sample.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
No subtypes recorded beyond the ones named in the family strip above.
How this cancer shows itself, how the diagnosis is confirmed, and the biomarkers clinicians test for.
Systemic therapy chosen by the primary cancer and its biomarkers, with early palliative care; see the individual cancer pages.
Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy or surgery to all sites in addition to systemic therapy, in selected patients and ideally in trials.
Palliative radiotherapy for pain, bone-modifying agents (zoledronic acid or denosumab) to prevent fractures, radium-223 in prostate cancer.
Stereotactic radiosurgery for limited lesions, surgery for large symptomatic ones, and brain-penetrant targeted drugs where a driver exists.
Trials recruiting now, the landmark trials, the trials held by this cancer's subtypes, the key papers and what they mean, the latest literature, and the milestones year by year.
Cases by country, the UK and NHS pathway and other country lenses, the expert centres with trials on record, and the centres named on this cancer's subtypes.
One section per setting: the options named, what each is for, the trials behind them, the recorded trade-offs and the questions to ask.
Sudden severe bone pain, or back pain with weakness or numbness in the legs (possible spinal cord compression).
See all on the product pages:Radium-223 dichloride·Printable cards in the navigator
Newly diagnosed? Read the first 60 days with Metastatic cancer, then print the one-page appointment sheet with room for the answers.
Print this page for your appointment (your browser's print command). These prompts are for discussion; your clinical team knows your case.
Everything in development, the medicines held by this cancer's subtypes, the open problems and what is being done about them, the roadmaps, and what changed on this record.
Every connected record, the notes, the JSON, Markdown and RDF twins, and where the record came from and when it was checked.