How Uterine Sarcoma Spreads
Uterine sarcomas behave differently in each woman. Even women who have the same type of cancer in the same stage and who get the same treatment can have different results. Some women are cured. Others have cancer that spreads or comes back. Doctors do not know the reason for this difference. They think it might be because each tumor’s cells are different and grow at different rates.
What a particular cancer looks like and how it spreads away from the original tumor is called its pathophysiology. If uterine sarcoma spreads, it tends to first go to places near the uterus. It can spread to the cervix, vagina, ovaries, fallopian tubes, and lymph nodes. In later stages, it can spread to the lungs, bladder, and bowel.
Cancer that spreads to other parts of the body is called metastatic cancer, and the process is called metastasis. Metastasis is a complicated process. The cancerous cells of the tumor invade normal tissues and blood vessels and travel through the bloodstream to reach other parts of the body. When the metastases reach other organs, they depend on the formation of new blood vessels to survive and grow.