Lets say someone goes to the doctor: The doctor sees tumors in the lungs and in the liver. Why does the doctor know that its liver cancer that spread to the lungs and not lung cancer that spread to the liver?
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In addition to what others have said, another predictor is the direction of blood flow.
One of the functions of the liver is to filter the blood being pumped from the digestive system to the heart, so it has several large veins that feed through it. When blood from those veins arrives in the heart, it gets pumped into the lungs to be reoxygenated. Therefore, if cancer starts in the liver and begins to spread via the bloodstream, the lungs are the next likely place for it to go. (Heart cancer is very rare because heart cells are so specialized, but that’s a whole ‘nother topic.)
Contrast that with cancer that starts in the lungs. If it spread via the circulatory system, it would go from lungs to heart, then travel through the arteries to many other possible locations. It’s pretty common (and also pretty terrible) for the brain to be the next stop since it’s relatively close to the heart, but it could spread to other organs as well.
I hope this is just a hypothetical question, OP, and that you and yours are healthy and happy.
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