Cancer how does it spread

Knowing the type of cancer and whether it has spread helps the health care team suggest a treatment plan. The goal of treatment is to stop or slow the growth of cancer or to relieve symptoms. A new animated video, Metastasis: How Cancer Spreads, shows how cancer cells can break off from the primary tumor in one organ, travel through a blood vessel, and invade another organ to form a new tumor. Watch the video and learn more about how cancer spreads at www.

Lowering Your Cancer Risk. Family Health Matters. Cancer Care Widens Its Reach. Close contact or things like sex, kissing, touching, sharing meals, or breathing the same air cannot spread cancer. Cancer cells from someone with cancer are not able to live in the body of another healthy person. The immune system finds and destroys foreign cells, including cancer cells from another person. Although cancer is not contagious, there are some situations that can make people think that cancer has spread from one person to another.

Although cancer itself is not contagious, there are some germs that can play a role in the development of certain types of cancer. Sometimes these symptoms will lead your doctor to do necessary tests to find the metastases. Researchers are learning more about how metastases may differ from the original tumor at the molecular and genetic level. This is why treatment for metastasis is often different from the treatment used for the original tumor.

Treatment may include chemotherapy or hormone therapy. Surgery and radiation therapy may also be options for some types of cancer. Doctors might try one type of treatment and then switch to another when the first treatment no longer works.

Or you might have a combination of treatments. Treatment that affects your entire body. Doctors call this systemic therapy. It includes chemotherapy and other medications, such as targeted therapy, hormone therapy, and immunotherapy.

Treatment for the area with cancer. Doctors call this local therapy. It includes surgery, radiation therapy, and some other treatments. When you choose a treatment, talk with doctors who have experience treating metastatic cancer. Doctors can have different opinions on the best treatment plan. Learn more about getting a second opinion. In some situations, metastatic cancer can be cured, but most commonly, treatment does not cure the cancer.

But doctors can treat it to slow its growth and reduce symptoms. It is possible to live for many months or years with certain types of cancer, even after the development of metastatic disease. It is important to ask your doctor about the goals of treatment.

Questions to Ask About Cancer. Choices for Care. Talking about Your Advanced Cancer. Planning for Advanced Cancer. Advanced Cancer and Caregivers. Questions to Ask about Advanced Cancer. Managing Cancer Care. Finding Health Care Services. Advance Directives. Using Trusted Resources. Coronavirus Information for Patients. Clinical Trials during Coronavirus.

Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer. Emotional Support for Young People with Cancer. Cancers by Body Location. Late Effects of Childhood Cancer Treatment. Pediatric Supportive Care. Rare Cancers of Childhood Treatment. Childhood Cancer Genomics. Study Findings. Metastatic Cancer Research. Intramural Research. Extramural Research.

Cancer Research Workforce. Partners in Cancer Research. What Are Cancer Research Studies. Research Studies. Get Involved. Cancer Biology Research. Cancer Genomics Research. Research on Causes of Cancer. Cancer Prevention Research. Cancer Treatment Research. Cancer Health Disparities. Childhood Cancers Research. Global Cancer Research. Cancer Research Infrastructure. Clinical Trials. Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research.

Bioinformatics, Big Data, and Cancer. Annual Report to the Nation.