metastatic

American  

[met-uh-stat-ik] / ˌmɛt əˈstæt ɪk /

adjective

1. Pathology. of, relating to, or resulting from metastasis, the transference of disease-producing organisms or malignant or cancerous cells to other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous surfaces.

   These blood vessels supply the tumor with nutrients and facilitate its metastatic spread.

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Other Word Forms

• metastatically adverb

Etymology

Origin of metastatic

First recorded in 1760–70; metasta(sis) ( def. ) + -tic ( def. )

Example Sentences

The same gene signatures derived from colon cancer also proved useful in predicting metastatic risk in other cancers, including stomach, lung, and breast cancer.

From Science Daily • Mar. 21, 2026

‘I want it to be useful,’ says former Sen. Ben Sasse, diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer last year at age 54.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 2026

“In our opinion, increasing clinical trends that support Stage IV as metastatic and Stage III as ‘earlier stage’ cancer suggests the test’s performance in Stage IV cancer could bear meaningful weight,” he said.

From Barron's • Feb. 20, 2026

Unlike primary tumors, removing all Treg cells in this context caused metastatic tumors to shrink.

From Science Daily • Feb. 6, 2026

She had died in 1958, at the age of thirty-seven, from diffusely metastatic ovarian cancer—an illness ultimately linked to mutations in genes.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee