Metastatic breast cancer means that a cancer has spread from breast to various distant organs. This is the most advanced stage (stages are counted from I to IV) of a breast cancer and usually it is seen as incurable version of this disease. Cancer cells have spread past the breast and underarm lymph nodes to other parts of the body, in these spreaded areas cancer cells continue to grow and multiply. It can spread to almost any part of the body; however, most often it spreads to bone, lung or a liver.
The treatment of metastatic breast cancer is usually concentrated only relieving symptoms (improving the quality of woman's life) and focuses on increasing the length of patient's life. Treatment includes all the usual therapies which are used in case of cancer (such as chemotherapy, surgery, radiation etc.) but in this case they only relieve the symptoms instead of curing.
Metastatic breast cancer is emotionally the toughest because patient herself knows that it is incurable. Thatswhy it is important to give women who suffer under this condition enough possibilities to talk about the disease and ask questions. There are social workers who are trained to help people with their disease and many support groups where patients with metastatic breast cancer can meet people who suffer under the same condition.
