Metastasis:1.The process by whichcancerspreads from the place at which it first arose as a primary tumor to distant locations in the body.
2.Thecancer造成主要的传播tumor. For example, someone withmelanomamay have a metastasis in their brain, while a person withcolon cancermight, fortunately, have no metastases.
Metastasis depends on thecancercells acquiring two separate abilities -- increased motility and invasiveness. Cells that metastasize are basically of the same kind as those in the original tumor. If a cancer arises in the lung and metastasizes to theliver, the cancer cells in the liver arelung cancercells. However, the cells have acquired increased motility and the ability to invade another organ.
The ancient Greeks used the wordmetastasisto mean "removal from one place to another." The plural of "metastasis" is "metastases."
The term "metastatic" may be used along with the names of specific cancers to refer to the fact that the cancer has spread beyond its site of origin and has, therefore, become a metastatic cancer. For example, "metastatic melanoma" refers to melanoma that has spread beyond the skin to distant organs.
