Metastatic malignant tumors are the presence of areas of tumor tissue in various parts of the body, remaining from a malignant neoplasm that has been removed from other parts of the body. Such residual lesions may produce neoplastic growth without any manifestations in other areas, such as metastatic disease to the bones, skin, or brain. Like all other forms of cancer, the appearance of metastases means that the disease has not been completely cured.
The main method for detecting metastases is a medical examination. Unlike the primary malignant tumor itself, they are rarely detected during visual examination and can be present in the patient in the absence of obvious signs of the presence of the first neoplasm.
The most common way for a cancer to spread is through metastasis through the bloodstream, but penetration of the tumor into other systems of the body is also quite possible. Diseases associated with metastases belong to the fourth stage of the pathology development process, although in most cases the primary lesions remain undetected until the moment when their treatment becomes impossible.
Depending on the location of the removed site of the pathological neoplasm, a cancerous tumor may appear even after an expected complete cure. Statistics show that doctors work to treat metastases in only 3% of cases, and the total number of such patients approximately corresponds to the percentage of the incidence of metastatic cancer in the total mass of oncological diseases.