By Antin. The mass of cancer cells has the ability to invade into adjacent tissue and to spread to spread to distant parts of the body. This mass of cancer cells has to have a blood supply to supporting its uncontrolled growth. So it causes neighboring blood vessels to grow into it. Neighboring blood vessels are often faulty and break easily and occur bleeding as a sign of cancer. They are also poor in carrying blood and oxygen so the mass of cancer cells is often relatively oxygen deficient. It makes cancer cells die and decay, which is why some cancers have an odor.

Cancers can spread by direct extension and invasion into adjacent tissues or along the lining surfaces in the abdomen. Systemic spread throughout the body is by the blood stream or lymphatic vessels. Beside the blood stream system, we also have a network of lymphatic vessels that drain all areas of the body. The lymphatic vessels converge into regional sites containing nests of lymph nodes. The lymph nodes, or glands, filter the lymph fluid for infectious agents and mount an immune response against them as a part of the immune system. Cancer can spread by way of the lymph vessels and clog up the lymph nodes and start to grow. If the lymph vessels success to against cancer cell they being able to cure a cancer, but if they failure the lymph nodes have cancer in hem. When a cancer cell has spread to the regional lymph nodes, those nodes are said to contain metastatic cancer. This is much different than a lymph node cancer in which the cancer originates from the lymph cells of the node. These cancers are called lymphomas.

Metastasis of cancer is a condition when cancer cell have found in other organ outside the mass. Systemic spread throughout the body is by the blood stream or lymphatic vessels. By this way metastasis of cancer could be found far away from its origin. For example carcinoma of cervix can metastasize to the brain.

Some cancers have little potential to spread; others are very unpredictable and can spread even before the primary site can be determined. The diagnosis of cancer usually requires that a tissue specimen be removed (biopsy) and sent to a pathologist. The pathologist examines the specimen microscopically to determine if it is cancer and if so what kind of cancer, i.e., primary site and type.


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