Most people who die of cancer, die of metastasis. Approximately 90% of cancer deaths are from metastasis. It\u2019s essentially when a tumor cell leaves the place it originally started, goes to another tissue, and builds a new colony.\n\nIt\u2019s an incredibly complex process, but two experts in the field have recently published work that brings the problem of metastasis into focus.\n\nDanny Welch, Professor and Associate Director of Education at The University of Kansas Cancer Center, and Doug Hurst, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, scoured the scientific literature\u2014reviewing more than 10,000 publications\u2014and defined the hallmarks of metastasis:\n\n1.\tMotility and invasion\n2.\tModulation of the microenvironment\n3.\tPlasticity/adaptability\n4.\tThe ability to colonize\n\nIn this conversation they explained each of the hallmarks and what it all means for cancer patients.