Staging

Staging describes the extent or severity of an individual’s cancer based on the extent of the original (primary) tumor and the extent of spread in the body. Staging is important:

Staging helps the doctor plan a person’s treatment.

The stage can be used to estimate the person’s prognosis (likely outcome or course of the disease).

Knowing the stage is important in identifying clinical trial (research studies) that may be suitable for a particular patient.

The common elements considered in most staging systems are:

• Location of the primary tumor,

• Tumor size and number of tumors,

• Lymph mode involvement (spread of cancer into lymph nodes),

• Cell type and tumor grade* (how closely the cancer cells resemble normal tissue), and

• Presence or absence of metastasis.

Two different staging systems are widely used to determine for the staging of neoplasms.

TNM classification:

T indicate tumor size and is classified from 0-4.

N indicates presence and extent of regional lymph node spread and is classified from 0-3.

M indicates presence and absence of distant metastases and is classified from as only 0 for absence or 1 for presence of metastases.

For example, Breast cancer T3 N2 M0 refers to a large tumor that has spread outside the breast to nearby lymph nodes, but not to other parts of the body.

AJCC staging denotes cancer stages 0-IV.

Stage	Definition
Stage 0	Carcinoma in situ (early cancer that is present only in the layer of cells in which it began).
Stage I, Stage II, and Stage III	Higher numbers indicate more extensive disease: greater tumor size, and/or spread of the cancer to nearby lymph nodes and/or organs adjacent to the primary tumor.
Stage IV	The cancer has spread to another organ.