All About Bone Metastases

[D.ap]

What are bone metastases?

Bone metastases, also called "bone mets," occur when cancer cells break off from a primary tumor that is somewhere else in the body. These cells travel through the blood stream or lymph system to a part of the bone and become metastatic cancer cells. This is different than a primary bone tumor, which starts in the bone. When these cancer cells deposit themselves into bone, they release substances that turn on either osteoclasts or osteoblasts. Osteoclasts lead to breakdown of bone without new bone being made, which weakens the bones. Osteoblasts being turned on leads to new bone being made without the breakdown of old bone first, which makes the bones become abnormally hard.

https://www.oncolink.org/cancers/bone/b ... metastases