Friday is national Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day.

The day focuses on the estimated 168,000 Americans diagnosed with this destructive cancer.

According to the metastatic breast cancer network MBC is known as Stage 4 and is when cancer spreads to other organs such as the bones, liver, lungs or the brain.

Doctors say about 20 to 30 percent of patients with an early stage cancer will have their cancer return as metastatic, even if they were told their early stage cancer had been cured.

About 8% of new breast cancer cases are found to be metastatic at their initial diagnosis. Although MBC can’t be cured today, it can be treated.

Doctors commonly treat the disease with chemotherapy and radiation. Other therapies include immunotherapy and targeted cell therapies.