Question

Explain what is meant by metastasis?

Answer 1

Cancer is a disease that is caused by uncontrolled cell division. The cells start dividing rapidly because they lose their cell cycle control. Without any control, the cells start dividing rapidly and produce an undifferentiated mass of cells at any particular location in the body.

Complete step by step answer: In cancer, also called malignancy, cells grow abnormally, and they have the potential to spread to other locations or invade into other organs or parts of the body. It is called metastasis. Those abnormal growths, contrary to metastasis, which do not spread to other parts of the body, are called benign tumours.
More than a hundred types of cancers are known till now. It is caused by cancer-causing or carcinogenic agents (carcinogens) like chemicals or toxic compounds, tobacco, ionizing radiations, pathogens (viruses) and defects in their own genes.
In metastasis, the cancerous cell originates at a particular place and starts spreading to different locations in the body. These cells may spread locally or in nearby tissues, through lymphatic and blood systems. It may reach up to lymph nodes through the lymph. It may be spread through the blood to distant locations of the body.
The patients in which cancer starts its metastasis, it may form tumours at different locations of the body and enlargement of lymph nodes can also be seen.

Note: Cancer has four stages. In stage 0, abnormal cancer cells are present, which are not spread yet while in stage 1, the cancer is small, and it has spread into nearby tissues in small quantities. In stage 3 and 4, cancer has spread into nearby tissues and lymph nodes. The last stage of cancer is the metastatic stage, in which cancer starts spreading to other parts of the body. It becomes metastatic cancer or advanced cancer.