A 45-year-old member asked:
How can cancer metastasis work?
1 doctor answer • 3 doctors weighed in
Dr. Myron Arlenanswered
Surgical Oncology 66 years experience
Different results: Metastasis arises from primary, the former being clonal and the primary, polyclonal. What spreads to a site such as liver or lung can only grow within that parenchyma and never spread elsewhere. The primary has multiple clones each only capable of spreading to a local site and growing there. Thus primary should always be removed and met focal disease treated later for best survival.
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1k viewsReviewed >2 years ago
Last updated Nov 28, 2017
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