In 2017, actor-singer Olivia Newton-John announced she had breast cancer for the third time. Two years later, she began suffering back pain and had to cancel her tour dates. Her physicians initially thought sciatica was the culprit, then they realized her cancer had spread to her bones. The famed Grease singer died at her home in Southern California in August 2022 at the age of 73.
Scientists are learning more about how and where cancer spreads. Metastatic breast cancer (MBC), the kind Newton-John had, typically spreads to the bones, brain, liver or lungs. MBC is a deadly disease and half of all women do not live three years past their diagnosis. Less than 26 percent of women survive five years past their diagnosis.
For most patients, there is no cure for MBC. Scientists are trying to learn more about how cancer-spreading cells function to stop MBC before it starts. A ...
