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?

Question

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?

In: 1592

Answer 1

They don’t always know. Source – an oncologist once asked me how you’d know where someone started painting a room.

Still, many types of cancer tend to come from certain places (small cell from lung cancer, etc).