National Nursing Review : Nursing Study Resources & Health Tips

Surgery may be used to ablate a metastasis.
A metastasis is a secondary tumor that develops in another body from cancerous cells from the primary tumor that have spread.
This means that these cells have spread elsewhere in the body, usually through the bloodstream and to a lesser extent through the lymphatic system. Also known as secondary location.
All primary cancers do not metastasize in the same areas of the body.
For example, breast cancers tend to produce metastases in the liver, lungs, bones or brain.
Cancers of the prostate metastasize most often in bones, liver or lungs.
In the natural history of cancer, metastases can be identified at three different times:

• one or metastases may be discovered before the primary tumor and reveal the presence of cancer
• one or metastases may be discovered during the diagnosis and assessment of the primary tumor,

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