Elizabeth Edwards doesn't have bone cancer. Tony Snow doesn't have liver cancer.

[Berry Cool]

Elizabeth Edwards has breast cancer that metastasized to the bone. Tony Snow has colon cancer that metastasized to the liver.

This has already been pointed out by some people, but enough others seem confused about the concept that I thought it was worth repeating. Obviously a lot of people don't know a whole lot about cancer, and knowledge is power.

Quite simply: Cancers that turn up primarily in one place in the body and then appear secondarily elsewhere don't change in terms of what kind of cancer they are. They are still the same cancer they were to begin with; they're just in a different body part or parts.

That's all I really wanted to say, other than that I wish them both the best.

[supernova]

1. Yes, you are correct

my mother died from breast cancer with metastasis to the upper arm bone and her brain.

[Cabcere]

2. I'm sorry to hear about your mom, supernova.

:hug:

[supernova]

5. Oh Thank you

Cabcere. :hug:

[uppityperson]

3. EE has cancer in her bones. TS has cancer in his liver.

Metastasized, yes. They have cancer in those places now.

[hlthe2b]

4. Good luck with that...

I used to be driven nuts by the press' habit of randomly interjecting "virus" for "bacteria" (sounds better, you know :eyes:), interchanging "drug" for "vaccine", and on and on and on. If we can't get the press to report it correctly, the general public is obviously going to be confused.

I've since largely given up, I'm afraid...

But, I applaud the effort...(and like you, wish them both the very best possible future)

[Flubadubya]

6. Yes, those technicalities have merit...

My Dad developed bladder cancer which was a transition cell carcinoma. Later it showed up in one of his kidneys (which had to be removed). During that time my sister heard about a promising new treatment for "kidney cancer" -- or renal cell carcinoma -- that was supposed to be very effective. I had to explain to her that Dad did not have renal cell carcinoma although the cancer was now in the kidney. She had a bit of a hard time processing that one. However, the difference was important.

Anyway, it does matter what "kind" of cancer no matter where it ends up, especially in terms of treatment. So yes, the actual "kind" of cancer is significant.

BTW... Dad is still alive and actually doing quite well after more than a decade since diagnosis. :)

[Der Blaue Engel]

7. I'm not sure I understand

My mother died of cancer. She initially had breast cancer, and had a radical mastectomy, chemo, and radiation. Two years later, she developed a brain tumor, which was treated with chemo and radiation, but never fully disappeared. A year after that, it metastasized into her liver, stomach, and who knows what other organs, which caused her death.

I have never been sure how to succinctly explain to people what she died of, because I don't really know if she died of breast cancer, or if the brain tumor arose independently and she died of a brain tumor, or if she ultimately died of metastatic cancer.

When it metastasizes, how is it still the same kind of cancer? How does a person with cancer in their bones not have bone cancer? Can you clarify for this layperson?

Thanks.

[supernova]

9. The type of cancer cells

If cancer cells that look like the cancer cells from the primary site (breast, for example) show up elsewhere in the body, then it's a metastisized cancer, not a completely new cancer.

And yes, you only know this if you have a second biopsy at the secondary site and compare that sample from the first diagnosis. That's why followup is so very important.

edit: This happens because you can never completely remove the cancer Even with surgery, some cancer cells will remain and ugh, migrate to other parts of the body. That's why it's so insidious a disease.

[AnnInLa]

8. Thank You.

[hedgehog]

10. The easy way to say it is to say "so-and so has X cancer which has spead

to the Y."

[WorldResident]

11. Does this matter?

n/t

[brook]

12. Yes.

n/t

[WorldResident]

13. Why?

n/t

[Berry Cool]

15. Different forms of cancer respond to different kinds of treatment, that's why.

Sorry I didn't get to this earlier, but wasn't feeling well last night.

Breast cancer cells won't respond to the same kind of treatment that cells from another kind of cancer will respond to. "Cancer" isn't just one disease; it's an umbrella term for any kind of disease involving uncontrolled cell growth. A breast cancer cell is not like a brain cancer cell, and neither one is like a liver cancer cell or a kidney cancer cell or a bone cancer cell or a colon cancer cell.

When the news about Elizabeth Edwards was first announced, some people were wondering if a bone marrow transplant would help her. It wouldn't, because bone marrow transplants, while they may help someone with bone cancer or leukemia, have been tried and proven ineffective in treating breast cancer, even if it ends up in the bone. The most effective breast cancer treatments we have remain as they always have been: slash (remove the breast or just the tumor through surgery), burn (radiation of the affected area) and poison (chemotherapy). And on some particularly aggressive forms of breast cancer, those don't really work too well. The cancer just keeps coming back.

[Longhorn]

14. My mother-in-law died of breast cancer that metastasized to her lungs

and then her brain. We were told that breast cancer is an especially mobile cancer and that's why it's so important to get it all. At the time (1979,) they were trying less invasive procedures so she had a mastectomy but no follow-up chemo or radiation. When it showed up on her lungs, they did chemo and thought they got it. When it showed up in her brain, they tried radiation and then surgery but it grew back and killed her. The entire process from discovery to death took about five years. She was just 49.

We've always wondered if chemo after the initial surgery would have eradicated it. :shrug: