metastasis

Transmission of pathogenic microorganisms or cancerous cells from an original site to one or more sites elsewhere in the body, usually by way of the blood vessels or lymphatics.

A secondary cancerous growth formed by transmission of cancerous cells from a primary growth located elsewhere in the body.

In petrography, a change within a rock or mineral in the nature of recrystallization or molecular rearrangement, without the addition or subtraction of material: as the crystallization of a limestone, or the devitrification of glass.

Change of substance; conversion of one substance into another.

In pathology, the production of local disease in some part of the body from a focus of more or less similar disease in some other part not immediately adjacent.

In botany, metabolism.

A spiritual change, as during baptism.

A change in the location of a disease, as from one part to another.

The migration of cancerous or malignant cells from the site of their origin to other parts of the body. Such cells may migrate to multiple new locations, making therapy more difficult and often leading to death.

The act or process by which matter is taken up by cells or tissues and is transformed into other matter; in plants, the act or process by which are produced all of those chemical changes in the constituents of the plant which are not accompanied by a production of organic matter; metabolism.