Key points to help you look under the right cancer type

• Sometimes doctors are not able to tell where your cancer started, this is called an unknown primary. Visit  unknown primary cancer information on this site
  

• Cancer can sometimes spread (metastasise) to other parts of the body, this is often called "secondary cancer" or "mets".

  For example a cancer starting in the breast may spread to the bones.  The second cancer  in the bones is still considered to be a breast cancer and will therefore be treated as breast cancer so in this case when you are looking for information look under breast cancer  not under bone cancer.
  

• Some cancers are very rare and it is not possible to list them individually, if your cancer is not listed please look in the rare cancer section for more information

Page last edited: 29 July 2011