Metastatic
Relating to or affected by metastasis—the spread of cancer cells from the original tumor site to distant parts of the body through blood, lymph, or direct extension.
Biological Context
Metastasis is what makes cancer lethal. Cancer cells must acquire multiple capabilities to metastasize: detach from the primary tumor, survive in circulation, evade immune destruction, and establish growth in new environments. Metastatic disease is far harder to treat than localized cancer because it involves multiple sites and has already demonstrated aggressive, adaptive characteristics.
Business Application
Metastatic business growth: expansion that spreads everywhere without strategic coordination—launching in 35 countries simultaneously, pursuing every adjacent market, creating initiatives faster than they can be evaluated. Like metastatic cancer, the problem isn't that any single expansion is bad, but that resources diffuse across too many fronts, with no mechanism to concentrate effort or stop failing initiatives.