Metastasis
Metastasis means cancer has spread from its original site to another part of the body.
When to get help quickly: Urgent review is more important if metastasis is causing severe pain, weakness, breathing difficulty, confusion, or suspected spinal cord compression.
Common symptoms
Symptoms depend on where the cancer has spread and may include pain, weight loss, tiredness, breathing trouble, neurological symptoms, or no symptoms at all.
When imaging helps
Imaging helps look for spread, show how extensive it is, identify which organs are involved, and monitor whether treatment is working.
What radiology does
CT, MRI, bone scan, PET-CT, and other imaging tools help look for spread and assess how extensive it is.
What usually happens next
Management depends on the primary cancer type, the sites involved, symptoms, and available treatment options.
Seen this on your report?
Your doctor or the radiologist who wrote it can tell you what it means for you.
Related articles
Related scan guides
- PET-CT ScanPET-CT combines nuclear medicine and CT imaging to show both how tissues are working and where abnormal activity is located in the body. It is commonly used in cancer, and in selected heart and brain conditions.
- Whole-Body ScanA whole-body scan is a nuclear medicine test that looks across much of the body for abnormal tracer uptake. In many patient settings, it refers to a whole-body bone scan used to assess bone activity throughout the skeleton.
- Liver BiopsyA liver biopsy uses image guidance to collect tissue for pathology, helping characterize liver disease while carrying bleeding risk and possible sampling limitations.