Pathophysiology · Oncology · Week 3

Where Cancer Lands: Pick a Primary, Pick a Route

Cancer does not scatter at random. The road it takes decides where it can stop. Pick where the cancer starts, then pick its way out: grow next door, ride the lymph, ride the blood, or fall across a body cavity. The organs that light up are the ones that road reaches first.

The map brighter means more deposits

The star is where the cancer starts. The thick line is the road you picked. Organs fill in as they take a share of the traveling cells.

Out of a million cells, how many land?

Each bar is what is left after one more hurdle. The scale is squeezed, because the drop is huge.
Pick a primaryThen pick its road out.
Where it starts
The road out
 

Live readout

Tumor weight
4.2 grams
Cells set loose each day
4.2 million
Still alive after a day
4200
New deposits
1 per 8.7 years
First stop on this road
Armpit nodes
Pick a road and watch the map.

Share of deposits by organ

Landing siteShare
Two things set this list. Cells stop in the first narrow bed of vessels they reach, and they only take hold where the ground suits them. That pairing is the seed and soil idea.