Cancer Health Center

The results of diagnostic and staging tests are used to find out if cancer cells have spread.

The process used to find out if cancer has spread from where it began to other parts of the body is called staging. There is no standard staging system for Ewing sarcoma family of tumors. The results of the tests and procedures done to diagnose Ewing sarcoma family of tumors are used to group the tumors into localized or metastatic.

Ewing sarcoma family of tumors are grouped based on whether the cancer has spread from the bone or soft tissue in which the cancer began.

Ewing sarcoma family of tumors are described as either localized or metastatic.

Localized Ewing sarcoma family of tumors

The cancer is found in the bone or soft tissue in which the cancer began and may have spread to nearby tissue, including lymph nodes.

Metastatic Ewing sarcoma family of tumors

The cancer has spread from the bone or soft tissue in which the cancer began to other parts of the body. In Ewing tumor of bone, the cancer most often spreads to the lung, other bones, and bone marrow.

There are three ways that cancer spreads in the body.

The three ways that cancer spreads in the body are:

• Through tissue. Cancer invades the surrounding normal tissue.
• Through the lymph system. Cancer invades the lymph system and travels through the lymph vessels to other places in the body.
• Through the blood. Cancer invades the veins and capillaries and travels through the blood to other places in the body.

When cancer cells break away from the primary (original) tumor and travel through the lymph or blood to other places in the body, another (secondary) tumor may form. This process is called metastasis. The secondary (metastatic) tumor is the same type of cancer as the primary tumor. For example, if bone cancer spreads to the lung, the cancer cells in the lung are actually bone cancer cells. The disease is metastatic bone cancer, not lung cancer.