To which organs does breast cancer usually metastasize?

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Breast cancer initially grows only locally, then invades surrounding tissues and finally metastasizes to other organs. Breast cancer cells often metastasize to places such as bones, lungs, and brain.

1. Breast cancer metastasis to bone

The rate of breast cancer metastasis to bone accounts for over 85%, because bone is the most likely place to metastasize for malignant breast cancer cells. When metastasized to bone, proliferative cells can lead to bone destruction, causing osteoporosis, most seriously, brittleness and fracture.
The ability of breast cancer to metastasize to bones for each bone area is most common: the pelvis, lumbar bone, ribs, skull, cervical vertebrae... Once breast cancer has metastasized to the bones, If left untreated, the patient will experience a lot of pain, disability and death.
For the treatment of late-stage breast cancer, doctors usually assign patients to treatment with radiation therapy, chemotherapy, pain relief and endocrine therapy. However, it is possible to combine many methods to bring about better treatment results.

2. Lung metastatic breast cancer

Breast cancer with lung metastasis is ranked second after bone metastasis. Tumors that have spread to the lung are usually less than 3cm in size, hard, and not located in the outer region of the lung. Breast cancer with lung metastases can lead to complications of pneumonia, atelectasis, or pleural effusion. Furthermore, many studies suggest that breast cancer surgery patients may develop pneumonia in the weeks or months after surgery.
Many people will recognize the symptoms of breast cancer metastasis to the lungs in the late stages of the disease, typically symptoms like colds and flu. Some symptoms are easy to notice, such as: persistent cough, shortness of breath, unusually short breathing, sometimes coughing up blood, loss of appetite, or unintended weight loss. In addition, patients often feel fatigue, lack of energy, sudden lung pain.

3. Breast cancer metastasis to the brain

Brain metastases account for about 18% of metastases from breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Accordingly, malignant cancer cells begin to attack the brain, usually between the gray and white matter areas of the brain, or the sinuses and blood vessels. Brain metastases are usually distributed according to the location of blood supply to each region of the brain and mainly in the cerebral hemisphere (about 85%).
When metastasized to the brain, the development of breast cancer will lead to a variety of neurological symptoms, such as headache, neurological dysfunction, paralysis or loss of sensation due to the tumor's location too large. large, causing brain swelling, blockage of blood vessels, even causing stroke. To treat this case, doctors will consider appointing surgery with a combination of chemotherapy, radiation and endocrine therapy, depending on the patient's health situation and the severity of the disease.

4. Liver metastasis

Breast cancer metastasis to the liver occurs when the patient has entered the final stage. When metastasized to the liver, patients will notice symptoms similar to those with liver disease, including: Jaundice, abdominal pain, unusual weight loss, or unexplained bruises on the skin.. Some other symptoms, such as pain in the liver, appearance of liver tumor, poor liver's ability to work effectively. In the case of breast cancer with liver metastases, the main treatment methods are ablation of the tumor, embolization combined with chemotherapy and radiotherapy alone.
Breast cancer is a very dangerous disease, the final stage can metastasize to many other parts of the body, the most common is breast cancer metastasize to bones, lungs, brain, causing a series of difficult consequences. measure. However, in the early stages of cancer, the progression is often quite silent. Therefore, women should periodically screen for breast cancer for accurate examination, early diagnosis and timely treatment, if any, to avoid spreading, which is difficult to treat.
At Vinmec International General Hospital, there is a Breast Cancer Screening Package, which helps customers screen and detect breast cancer early even when there are no symptoms. When registering for the Breast Cancer Screening Package, customers will receive:
Examination and consultation with an oncologist. Breast cancer screening by bilateral breast ultrasound and mammogram. Up to now, Vinmec has become a prestigious address in breast cancer screening with:
Team of highly qualified and experienced doctors. Comprehensive professional cooperation with domestic and international hospitals: Singapore, Japan, USA, .. Comprehensive treatment and care, multi-specialty coordination towards individualizing each patient. Having a full range of specialized facilities for diagnosis and staging before treatment: Endoscopy, CT scan, PET-CT scan, MRI, histopathological diagnosis, gene-cell testing, .. There are a full range of mainstream cancer treatment methods: surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, stem cell transplant...

Please dial HOTLINE for more information or register for an appointment HERE. Download MyVinmec app to make appointments faster and to manage your bookings easily.