Cancer is defined as when there is an abnormal excessive growth of any tissue. So does or can cancer affect the foot? Of course it does, as the foot has all the same tissues as other parts of the body. Cancer in the foot is very uncommon, but when it does happen it has the potential to be very serious as it is often missed or misdiagnosed as somethng not so serious. There are two types of cancer that can affect the foot. One is where the cancer originates in the foot, so this could be in the any tissue from the skin to the bone to joint the ligaments to the nerves or the blood vessels. As the foot is a weight-bearing part of the body and has a lot of things that can go wrong a very high index of suspicion is needed to differentiate one of these primary cancers from what could be considered a typical and common foot problem. That is why the expertise of a good competent clinician is needed to manage foot problems and to rule out one of these more potentially serious problems that are uncommon. The other type of cancer that can affect the foot is a metastasis or a spread of the cancer from another part of the body. This cancer may be already be diagnosed and can spread to the foot where it creates pain in the foot. Alternatively the cancer may start developing another part of the body and it is un-diagnosed there and it sends a metastasis or spreads to the foot and causes pain in the foot. This is very uncommon but when it does happen it is very serious because it normally means that the original cancer is well established. It also poses a diagnostic dilemma for the clinician who is trying to diagnose the reason for the pain in the foot. Again, a very high index of suspicion and intuition is needed by the clinician to pick this up in the early stages. The earlier that these types of cancers are diagnosed the better the outcome is likely to be.