What primary distinction exists between treating a localized tumor versus a metastasized cancer?
Answer
Metastatic cancer involves established secondary tumors, making elimination harder with current systemic therapies.
The biological challenge escalates dramatically when cancer moves beyond its original site, a process known as metastasis, where cells have traveled and created new, secondary tumors in distant organs. Treating a localized tumor often allows for curative interventions like surgery, as the disease burden is contained. However, when the cancer is metastatic, the disease is biologically widespread. Eliminating all these separate disease sites simultaneously using current systemic therapies, which must reach every microscopic colony, presents a substantially more difficult proposition for achieving total disease control.
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