ToBeGolden Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 If someone said, "she has metastatic ovarian cancer", does it mean (1) that she had ovarian cancer that spread to some other (distant) location., or (2) that she had a primary cancer at some distant location and it spread to the ovaries? I'm male, and using a female cancer as an example only to denote that I'm not talking about myself (or anyone else). I'm just trying to figure out how the term is used. Are there other uses for this and similar terms? Rick Walloch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieB Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 You always describe your primary/original cancer first with metastatic cancer unless on the rare occasion you've had biopsies and the tumors are different - which means you have two primary cancer types. Metastatic ovarian cancer means she has a primary cancer of ovarian cancer that has metastasize (spread) to another/other parts of the body. This term is confusing to some. I've heard some people describe each metastatic site as an additional cancer- "my mom has ovarian, liver and lung cancer" which isn't the case. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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