Cancer is a key health issue across the world, causing substantial patient morbidity and mortality. Patient prognosis is tightly linked with metastatic dissemination of the disease to distant sites, with metastatic diseases accounting for a vast percentage of cancer patient mortality. Whilst advances in this area have been made, the process of cancer metastasis and the factors governing cancer spread and establishment at secondary locations is still poorly understood. The current article summarises recent progress in this area of research, both in the understanding of the underlying biological processes and in the therapeutic strategies for the management of metastasis. Together with the Capstone paper of this issue, this review aims to provide useful references for this poorly understood area, highlighting the need and potential for new therapeutics.