Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide.

What is metastatic breast cancer? Also known as stage IV breast cancer, this type of breast cancer has spread to another part of the body.

Strategies targeting the primary tumor have markedly improved, but systemic treatments to prevent metastasis are less effective; metastatic disease, or the spread of tumor cells throughout the body, remains the underlying cause of death in the majority of breast cancer patients who succumb to their disease.

Metastatic disease is responsible for the vast majority of cancer patient deaths. The importance of understanding the mechanisms underlying the metastatic process, and providing valuable insights into the underlying cause of metastasis in breast cancer is widely recognized.

While medicine therapies and treatment are continuously evolving, metastatic breast cancer remains incurable.