My son beat cancer (Stage IV NB) and finally made it to Fenway! It was one of the best moments of my life, and one I didn’t know if I’d ever get to see! (Suggested I post here after post was removed from r/baseball)

Stage 4 cancer is also called metastatic cancer because it often means that the disease has spread from where it started to other parts of the body. This stage may not be found until years after the first cancer diagnosis or after the main cancer has been treated or gotten rid of.

Even if a cancer has spread to another part of the body, it is still identified by where it started. For example, breast cancer is still breast cancer even if it has spread to the brain. Stage 4A and 4B are two subgroups of stage 4 cancers. How far the cancer has spread in the body is often used to tell the difference between the two. Adenocarcinomas that are in stage 4 are often called “metastatic adenocarcinomas.”

Liquid or blood cancers like leukaemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma are staged differently than most other cancers because they don’t always turn into solid tumours. There are a number of ways to stage liquid cancers, such as:

• The number of cancerous blood cells to healthy ones
• How much the liver, spleen, or lymph nodes might get bigger
• If the cancer has caused problems with the blood, like anaemia.

For a cancer to be in stage 4, the following things must be true:

Breast cancer

In stage 4 breast cancer, the cancer has spread to parts of the body near or far from the breast, as well as the breast, underarm, and internal mammary lymph nodes. Most often, breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body goes to the bones, brain, lungs, or liver.

Lung cancer 

In stage 4 lung cancer, the cancer has spread from one lung to the other or outside of the lungs. The liver, brain, bones, and/or adrenal glands are the most common places where lung cancer spreads after it has spread to other parts of the body.

Prostate cancer

Even though the prostate has been removed, stage 4 prostate cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Most of the time, prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body goes to the lungs, liver, bones, or adrenal glands.

Colorectal cancer

When colorectal cancer is in stage 4, it has spread to organs other than the colon. Most of the time, colorectal cancer that has spread to other parts of the body goes to the liver, lungs, or bones.

Melanoma

In stage 4 melanoma, cancer cells have spread from the skin and nearby lymph nodes to distant lymph nodes, organs, and/or other parts of the skin. Metastatic melanoma is melanoma that has spread to the bones, brain, liver, or lungs.

How to treat breast cancer at stage 4: Systemic treatments are often used for cancer that has spread beyond the breast and lymph nodes nearby. Here’s what they are:

• The use of hormones
• Certain medicines
• Chemotherapy
• Immunotherapy

They can be used alone or together, and how well they work may depend on the HER2 status and hormone receptor status of the cancer. In some cases, surgery and radiation may be used to treat the symptoms of a growing tumour rather than the disease itself. Depending on what kind of tumour it is, it may be removed surgically or shrunk with radiation therapy.

• Blood vessels getting clogged up
• Causing damage
• Causing damage to the spinal cord