| Abstract: |
Cancer is a lethal disease because it metastasizes. Modern surgery and radiotherapy can control most primary tumors, but those that escape their local confines and spread to cause detectable visceral metastases are almost invariably fatal. As a result, there has been considerable interest recently in the surgical treatment of metastatic cancer, particularly pulmonary, hepatic, and brain metastases.1 A surgical approach to metastases might seem illogical, since once tumor cells have entered the bloodstream they have the capacity to spread to and lodge and grow in multiple organs or a single organ at multiple sites; in most patients this does indeed. © 1990, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. |
