metastasis
[muh-tas-tuh-sis]
- Pathology.
- the transference of disease-producing organisms or of malignant or cancerous cells to other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous surfaces.
- the condition produced by this.
- transformation(def 3).
- Rhetoric. a rapid transition, as from one subject to another.
- Physics. a change in position or orbit of an elementary particle.
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Origin of metastasis
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for metastatic
Contemporary Examples
From there grew the idea that inflammation itself could be a facilitator of metastatic growth.
After a struggle of a little less than seven weeks, my father—a lifelong nonsmoker—died of metastatic lung cancer.
When they told us she had metastatic disease, she was well schooled in what to expect, and she expected two years.
Nine years ago, he discovered he had metastatic colon cancer.
Historical Examples
A second form of metastatic arthritis is met with in strangles.
Lameness of the HorseJohn Victor Lacroix
Flat-celled epithelioma is found at the cardiac orifice and as a metastatic growth in other parts of the stomach.
Melanotic sarcoma may occur as metastatic from an original melano-sarcomatous tumor of the skin or eyeball.
Primary cancer occurs most frequently, metastatic cancer with great rarity.
In this condition the pancreas may be the seat of either acute parenchymatous inflammation or of metastatic abscesses.
metastasis
- pathol the spreading of a disease, esp cancer cells, from one part of the body to another
- a transformation or change, as in rhetoric, from one point to another
- a rare word for metabolism
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Word Origin
C16: via Latin from Greek: transition
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for metastatic
metastasis
n.
1570s, originally in rhetoric, from Late Latin metastasis "transition," from Greek metastasis "a removing, removal; migration; a changing; change, revolution," from methistanai "to remove, change," from meta- "over, across" (see meta-) + histanai "to place, cause to stand," from PIE root *sta- "to stand" (see stet). A rhetorical term in Late Latin for "a sudden transition in subjects," medical use for "shift of disease from one part of the body to another" dates from 1660s in English. Related: Metastatic.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
metastasis
(mə-tăs′tə-sĭs)- Transmission of pathogenic microorganisms or cancerous cells from an original site to one or more sites elsewhere in the body, usually by way of the blood vessels or lymphatics.
- A secondary cancerous growth formed by transmission of cancerous cells from a primary growth located elsewhere in the body.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
metastasis
[mə-tăs′tə-sĭs]
- A cancerous tumor formed by transmission of malignant cells from a primary cancer located elsewhere in the body.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.