Cancer patients with small primary tumours often experience relapse despite receiving local and systemic treatment, indicating that metastatic disease can arise from minimal residual disease at early stages of cancer progression. This phenomenon demonstrates that small tumour size does not preclude the development of disseminated tumour cells capable of future metastatic growth. [@klein_genetic_2002]
Definitions
- primary tumour
- minimal residual disease
- metastatic relapse
- local treatment
- systemic treatment
- disseminated tumour cells