Metastatic Breast Cancer: What Exactly Is Metastatic Breast Cancer?

glamour.com:

awareness that’s now part of our lives, it’s surprising how many people don’t know what metastatic breast cancer , exactly—or even vaguely.

One could argue that this is the type of breast cancer we should be the most acutely aware of, because metastatic breast cancer (or MBC) is the only type you can die from. “Metastasis” means that breast cancer cells have spread from the breast to other parts of the body, like the lymph nodes, bones, brain, or liver.

Also called advanced breast cancer or , metastatic breast cancer is always considered terminal, because —unlike all other types of breast cancer, which you can often “beat” with treatment.

For someone with MBC, the same encouraging words often given to people with early-stage breast cancer, like “you’ll beat this,” can be painful to hear, since they’ll always be living with the disease.