What is metastatic cancer?
Everyone’s journey with cancer is different. Cancer can have different effects on each person’s body. Some people might hear from their doctor that cancer has spread from where it started to another part of their body. This is called metastatic cancer. Cancer can spread when a bit of it breaks away, moves to another part of the body and grows there It can spread to other parts by getting into the blood or the lymphatic system or by growing into nearby organs.
Metastatic cancer is sometimes known as secondary or advanced cancer.
When cancer spreads to a new area, it is still named after the part of the body where it started. If you have lung cancer and it spreads to a bone in your body, it is called metastatic lung cancer, not bone cancer. The cancer in your lung is called a primary cancer and the cancer in your bone is called a secondary cancer or bone metastasis.
Some people do get told that cancer has already spread, when they are first told they have cancer. The cancer might be found in the bone first, but tests show it was from the lung. This will be called lung cancer that has spread or ‘metastasised’ to the bone.