By stages of cancer we mean the extent
up to which it has grown and what is its current condition. As soon as a doctor
diagnoses cancer he conducts different tests to understand how big the cancer
has grown to and how far they have spread to the surrounding tissues. He also
checks to see whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
Importance of cancer
staging
Knowing the present stage of a
cancer is very essential as it help the doctor to decide the course of action to
be taken. If cancer has not spread to other organs of the body then a local surgery
or treatment such as a surgery or radio therapy will be enough. In a local
treatment, only one area in the body is treated. For cancer which has spread to
many organs, a local treatment will not be sufficient. A treatment that circulates medicine through
the blood stream like hormone therapy, chemotherapy, biological therapy etc is
the suitable modes of treatment for such a cancer.
Sometimes doctors are not sure about whether the cancer has
spread to other parts of the body. On such
occasions they search the nearby lymph nodes to see whether they are cancerous.
Presence of cancerous cells in lymph node is a sign of the beginning of the spreading
of cancer. If cancer cells are found in the lymph nodes doctors go for adjuvant
treatment. This is treating the primary tumor as well as treating for the
cancer spread to the nearby organs. Chemotherapy after surgery is an example of
adjuvant therapy.
Staging systems
In general there are two main
staging systems in practice. They are the TNM system and the number system. In
TNM system T stands for denotes the size of the tumor and how far it has spread
to the nearby tissues. It is represented by digits 1 to 4, digit 1 representing
the smallest size and digit 4 representing the largest size. N stands for the
information regarding whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes or not.
This also is represented using digits 1- 3, 1 representing zero nodes and 3
representing lots of lymph nodes. M stands for metastasize which represents how
far it has spread to other parts of the
body, 0 representing cancer not spread to any other body parts and 1
representing the spreading of cancer to other parts of the body.
A cancer that has spread only to
lymph nodes and not to any part of the body can be represented by T2N1M0.
Similarly a more advanced cancer that has spread to other organs may be
represented by T4M3N1
Numbering system
Most types of cancer can be classified
into 4 stages of cancer. Doctors usually use Roman letters to represent cancer stages.
Stage 1: In this stage the tumor
is relatively small and is not spread to any organs or lymph nodes other than
the organ in which cancer is found.
Stage 2. In this stage a cancer cells have reached
the nearby lymph nodes, but has not spread to any distant lymph nodes or
organs.
Stage 3: In this stage the cancer
has spread completely in the organ where it was formed and to nearby lymph
nodes. The size of the tumor has also increased considerably.
Stage 4: Stage 4 refers to the stage
where the cancer has spread to other organs also. This stage of cancer is known
as metastatic cancer. Sometimes doctors add letters also to indicate the the
cancer of the organ where it was developed originally.
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