In some situations, metastatic cancer can be cured. But for most metastatic cancers, treatment does not cure the cancer but it can 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.
In testicular cancer, for example, the cure rates for patients with metastases are very high, reaching 90% of cases. Dr Aleix Prat states, "Metastasis does not mean that a cure is not possible; but it is true that a cure is more difficult in most advanced cancers, and sometimes impossible."
The 5-year relative survival rate for women with metastatic breast cancer in the U.S. is 30%. The 5-year survival rate for men with metastatic breast cancer is 19%.
Metastatic breast cancer may never go away completely. But treatment can control its spread. Cancer may even go into remission at some points. This means you have fewer signs and symptoms of cancer.
Treatments control and slow the growth of metastases, but the metastases usually don't go away completely. Treatments that may be used for metastatic cancer include chemotherapy and other drug therapies, radiation therapy, surgery and ablation therapy.
About one-third of women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in the U.S. live at least 5 years after diagnosis [7]. Some women may live 10 or more years beyond diagnosis [9].
When cancer metastasizes, usually when it is considered stage 4 cancer, it spreads to a different part of the body. Metastasis can impair the function of essential organs and body systems (digestion, lungs, bones, liver, blood vessels), which can cause essential body functions to cease.
For example, the five-year survival rate for metastatic lung cancer is 7%. This means that 7% of people diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer are still alive five years later. Meanwhile, the five-year survival rate of metastatic breast cancer is 28% for women and 22% for men.
Chemotherapy has been the standard treatment for many cancer metastases, while immunotherapy and targeted therapy have become relatively new options.
A patient with widespread metastasis or with metastasis to the lymph nodes has a life expectancy of less than six weeks. A patient with metastasis to the brain has a more variable life expectancy (one to 16 months) depending on the number and location of lesions and the specifics of treatment.
Treatments for metastatic cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy, and radiation therapy.
Advanced cancer is cancer that is unlikely to be cured or controlled with treatment. This is also called end-stage cancer or terminal cancer. (Sometimes terminal cancer is called metastatic cancer, but they aren't always the same thing. To learn more, see Metastatic Cancer: When Cancer Spreads.)
The steps in metastasis are as followings: escape of cancer cells from primary tumor, intravasation, survival maintenance, extravasation (secondary site seeding) and outgrowth (colonization) [5,6,7,8,9].
Lung and bronchial cancer causes more deaths in the U.S. than any other type of cancer in both men and women.
The Challenges of Living with Metastatic Cancer
Cancer that spreads from where it started to a distant part of the body is called metastatic cancer. For many types of cancer, it is also called stage IV (4) cancer. The process by which cancer cells spread to other parts of the body is called metastasis.
Metastatic breast cancer is always considered advanced stage IV breast cancer because it has spread (metastasized) to different organs or lymph nodes far from the breast.
Metastasis is a multi-step process encompassing the (i) local infiltration of tumor cells into the adjacent tissue, (ii) transendothelial migration of cancer cells into vessels known as intravasation, (iii) survival in the circulatory system, (iv) extravasation and (v) subsequent proliferation in competent organs ...
Although chemotherapy has long been one of the most effective cancer treatments, sometimes tumors can grow, and cancer can spread during treatment. It may mean that it is not effective at controlling the development of the tumor.
Pain. Pain is the most common symptom of bone metastases. It tends be a constant, aching pain that may be worse during activity and can cause sleeping difficulties. Bone pain from cancer tends to be quite different from the pain caused by common conditions such as arthritis or muscular strains.
Stage 4 cancer usually can't be cured. In addition, because it's usually spread throughout the body by the time it's diagnosed, it is unlikely the cancer can be completely removed. The goal of treatment is to prolong survival and improve your quality of life.
Metastatic brain tumors can grow rapidly, crowding or destroying nearby brain tissue. Sometimes a patient may have multiple metastatic tumors in different areas of the brain.
Many cancer deaths are caused when cancer moves from the original tumor and spreads to other tissues and organs. This is called metastatic cancer.
Unlike breast cancer, which has a very high survival rate—an average of 90% over five years—metastatic breast cancer isn't curable. But technology, treatments, and therapies are constantly improving, experts say, which means a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis is not an automatic death sentence.
Despite medical advancements, more than 60% of patients with a solid metastatic cancer experience pain, with about one-third receiving inadequate analgesia. Studies also show that pain prevalence among cancer patients increases with approaching death.