Can skin cancer spread to the eternal organs?
Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at
6:28 pm
elfdinotte asked:
What im asking is, if you have skin cancer, can it spread to a brain tumor and then to the lungs?
What im asking is, if you have skin cancer, can it spread to a brain tumor and then to the lungs?
Tagged with: Brain Tumor • Organs • Skin Cancer
Filed under: Skin Cancer
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Yes it can. Melanoma skin cancer is very aggressive and can spread to the internal organs.
Hello,
Perhaps I could add that whilst I agree, yes it can, – - I think that it would be much more usual for a cancer to spread first to the lungs, and then to the brain, (not the other way around). For two reasons: firstly, the lungs are first-in-line after ‘used’ blood and lymph are drained back to the heart; – and secondly, a first spread to the brain, would probably prove fatal, before it had time to spread again to the lungs.
There are two main malignant tumors of skin, the “squamous cell cancer,” (“SCC”), and the “melanoma.”
Melanoma is the more aggressive of the two, are spreads quickly once it has dug itself down into the skin,… Squamous cancer usually spreads to the local “lymph nodes” before it goes body-wide, – thus giving the helpful sign of swollen lymph glands before general spread.
I hope this is of some help. Don’t worry about the typo : )
Best wishes,
Belliger
(retired uk GP)