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A member asked:
Why is metastatic cancer difficult to treat?
5 doctors weighed in across 2 answers
Bad biology: Some metastatic cancer does respond well (eg, testicular cancer), but in general when a cancer has spread beyond the confines of its organ (eg, breast, liver) of origin it is demonstrating bad biologic behavior. That is, it appears to be able to spread distantly and "live" away from it's local primary/original tumor environment.
Answered 3/27/2019
6.4k views
Degree of Spread: "metastatic" implies that the cancer has spread to distant sites. This means that the cancer is more aggressive and is all over the body. For many kinds of cancers this means that surgery and radiation won't work as well (but that depends on tumor type, location, and degree of spread). The best treatment options for stage IV (metastatic) cancers is chemotherapy and aggressive palliative care.
Answered 1/28/2020
5.2k views
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