title: Surgical intervention and metastasis.
abstract: Recent findings, briefly summarized here, show that the dissemination of neoplastic cells is an early and continuing process; that individual tumor cells in a malignant tumor possess differing metastatic capacities; and that metastases can arise from specific subpopulations of tumor cells. These findings have considerable implications for the understanding and treatment of systemic malignancies. The underlying cause for the finding that surgical removal of the primary local tumor is often followed by considerably enhanced outgrowth of established micrometastases is not yet understood. The trauma and stress associated with surgical intervention does not of itself seem to constitute a major tumor-promoting component. More likely candidates responsible for enhanced outgrowth of metastases after surgery are the removal of the growth-inhibitory restraint that the primary tumor exerts on disseminated neoplastic cells.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D010641:Phenotype; D011183:Postoperative Complications