Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Kansas Cancer Center have identified four hallmarks of cancer metastasis — when cancer has spread to different parts of the body from where it started. Metastasis is believed to be the cause of up to 90 percent of cancer deaths.

Douglas Hurst, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAB Department of Pathology, and Danny Welch, Ph.D., associate director of Education at the KUCC, conducted a literature review of more than 10,000 publications on metastasis, and published their findings in Cancer Research, from the American Association for Cancer Research.

Metastasis can be very difficult to treat. Virtually any cancer type can form metastatic tumors. The most common sites for cancers to metastasize include the brain, bones, lungs and liver. Other areas include the adrenal gland, lymph nodes, skin and other organs.

Read more at University of Alabama at Birmingham

• Health