Cancer

Many patients die of cancer as a result not only of metastases but also recurrence of their primary tumor and treatment with cytotoxic drugs. In most patients with cancer, the cause of death is usually indirect; death is not the result of an overwhelming metastatic burden.

Renal damage may occur as a result of direct renal or ureteric invasion rather than renal metastases. The most common causes of death in cancer patients are chest or urinary tract infections, usually of gram-negative organisms. The infections usually result from an impairment in drainage caused by metastases.

Paraneoplastic syndromes occur in as many as 75% of patients at one time or another; these syndromes contribute to an electrolyte imbalance and subsequent demise. These syndromes have no direct relationship to tumor metastases. Most patients with liver metastases die with metastases rather than from metastases.