How are cancer cells formed?

In metastasis, cancer cells break away from where they first formed (primary cancer), travel through the blood or lymph system, and form new tumors (metastatic tumors) in other parts of the body. The metastatic tumor is the same type of cancer as the primary tumor. read more

View a transcript for the video about how cancer starts.. It can take many years for a damaged cell to divide and grow and form a tumour big enough to cause symptoms or show up on a scan. read more

A parent cell divides to form two daughter cells, and these daughter cells are used to build new tissue, or to replace cells that have died because of ageing or damage. Healthy cells stop dividing when there is no longer a need for more daughter cells, but cancer cells continue to produce copies. read more