This review provides an introduction to fundamentals and new advances in cancer metastasis for general readers. The first segment includes topics such as cell adhesion, cell migration, proteases, inflammation, coagulation and site selection in metastasis. Then follows a discussion of an interesting report by Kaplan et al. [VEGFR1-positive haematopoietic bone marrow progenitors initiate the pre-metastatic niche. Nature 2005;438:820-7] that provides evidence for a role of VEGFR1+bone marrow cells in preparing pre-metastatic niches in specific organs that host the arrival and growth of metastatic cancer cells. The therapeutic implications of this study are explored.