If lymphoma is diagnosed, the doctor needs to know the stage ,
or extent, of the disease to plan the best treatment. Staging is
a careful attempt to find out whether the cancer has spread, and
if so, to what parts of the body. The Spreading of Cancer There
are three ways that cancer spreads in the body: 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 tumor and travel through the lymph or blood to other
places in the body, another, or secondary tumor, may form. This
process is called metastasis . The secondary, or metastatic,
tumor is the same type of cancer as the primary tumor. For
example, if lymphoma spreads to the bones, the cancer cells in
the bones are actually lymphoma cancer cells. The disease is
metastatic lymphoma ca