If you’ve been told that you have metastatic breast cancer you’re probably feeling frightened and overwhelmed. Or, instead, you may be anxious about some new symptoms you’re experiencing and are wondering if you could have metastatic breast cancer. The word “metastatic” is used in different ways with breast cancer so let’s begin by exploring a few definitions for terms you may come across.
Metastatic breast cancer is the same thing as stage 4 breast cancer, and is considered the most advanced stage of breast cancer. It refers to breast cancers which have spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes, to other regions of the body. The term used to describe these metastases beyond the breast and lymph nodes is “distant metastases.”
When breast cancer spreads to the bones, liver, lungs, or another region of the body it is still breast cancer. If you were to take a sample of the cancer in these locations and look at it under the microscope, the appearance would be of cancerous breast cells, not bone, liver, or lung cells.
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