Staging

Staging

The stage shows the extent of your cancer like how large the tumor is and if it has spread, knowing your cancer level helps your doctor:

• Understand how your cancer is and how many are likely to survive
• Plan the best treatment for you
• Identify clinical trials that can be your treatment options

A cancer is always specified by the stage which was given on the diagnosis, even if it is bad or spreads. New information about how cancer has changed over time, has been added to the original state. So there is no change in phase even if cancer can occur

How is the stage determined?

Your doctor may order x-ray laboratory tests and other tests or procedures to know the level of your illness. To learn more about these tests, see the section on Diagnostics.

Stage system

Many staging systems are used for many types of cancers, such as some TNM staging systems. Most staging systems are typical for others of a particular type of cancer:

• Where the tumor is located in the body
• Cell types like adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma
• Tumor size
• Is cancer spread to the nearby lymph nodes
• Whether the cancer has spread to a different part of the body
• Tumor grade which is how cancerous cells look and how tumor increases and spreads
• TNM staging system

TNM system is the most commonly used cancer staging system. Most hospitals and medical centers have used the TNM system as the main method for reporting cancer. You can see your cancer described by this staging system in your pathology report until you have no cancer, for which a different staging system is used. In the example of cancer with various staging systems, brain and spinal cord tumors and blood cancer.

In TNM system:

• T refers to the size and extent of the main tumor. The main tumor is usually called the primary tumor.
• N indicates the number of lymph nodes surrounding cancer.
• M refers to whether cancer metastasis has been done or not. This means that cancer has spread from primary tumors to other parts of the body.

When your cancer is described by the TNM system, after each letter there will be numbers which give more information about cancer, for example T1N0MX or T3N1M0, for example, what the words and numbers mean are:

Primary tumor (T)

• TX: The main tumor can not be measured.
• T: The main tumor can not be found
• T1 T2T3T4: refers to the size and / or extent of the main tumor. The greater the number of tumors after T, the more it grows in nearby tissues. TS can be further divided to provide more details such as T3a and T3b

Regional lymph nodes (N)

• NX: Cancer can not be measured in nearby lymph nodes.
• N0: There is no cancer in nearby lymph nodes.
• N1, N2, N3: shows the number and location of cancer lymph nodes. After more lymph nodes of cancer, the number of N will be higher.

Remote metastasis M

• MX: Metastasis can not be measured.
• M: Cancer does not spread in other parts of the body.
• M1 cancer has spread to other parts of the body

Other ways to describe the stage

The TNM system tells the cancer in very detail. But, for many cancers, TNM combination is divided into five less-detailed steps. While talking about your cancer, your doctor or nurse can describe it as one of these steps:

Another staging system is used for cancer of all types of cancerous groups, which is one of the five main categories. This staging system is often used by the Cancer Registry as compared to doctors, but you can still describe your cancer to your doctor or nurse in the following ways:

• Unusual cells are present in situ but do not spread in adjacent tissues.
• Localized cancer is limited to the place where it was started, there is no indication that it has spread.
• Regional cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes, tissues, or organs.
• Remote cancer has spread to distant parts of the body.
• There is not enough information to understand the unknown-stage